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THE CONTRAST 



EVANGELICALISM AND SPIRITUALISM 

COMPAEED. 



By MOSES HULL, 



AUTHOR OF " QUESTION SETTLED,' 7 " LETTERS TO ELDER MILES GRANT," 

" BOTH SIDES," " THAT TERRIBLE QUESTION," '« THE 

SUPREMACY OF REASON," "THE WOLF IN 

SHEEP'S CLOTHING," ETC. 



1 For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies 
themselves being- judges." 

Deuteronomy xxxii. 31. 




BOSTON: 

WILLIAM WHITE AND COM: 

"Banner of Light" Office, 
No. 14 Hanover Street. 

1873. « , 



& 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, 

By MOSES HULL, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



Stereotyped at the Boston Stereotype Foundry, 
19 Spring Lane. 



PREFACE. 



When, in the preface to another volume about four 
years since, I promised this, I had no thought of keep- 
ing my friends in waiting so long. But this is a busy 
life, and especially a busy age ; and other duties have 
pressed so continually, that, until now, I have not 
been able to answer this demand of my friends. Had 
it not been for acts of injustice on the part of "false 
brethren," I could not even now have found the time 
to have prepared this volume. One unrighteous act, 
that stripped me of the most of my earthly posses- 
sions, gave me time to write these pages. 

Though the press gave me a severe castigation for 
once before stating that my thoughts were hastily 
thrown together, I must repeat the offence ; the same 
is true of this volume. I have written this book in 
little snatches, on the cars and in boarding-houses, 
never having lost the opportunity for a single lecture, 
or an hour's work in consequence of it. 

3 



4 PREFACE. 

Newspaper scribblers need not tell me this is im- 
perfect. I know it. Had I kept it from a hungry 
public until I could have found time to have revised 
and perfected it, I would have done them more injus- 
tice than I have in handing them this hastily prepared 
repast. 

This book, too, has shaped itself; my plans have 
not been followed ; matter I had prepared for it re- 
mains unpublished, while some that is here I had 
not intended should see the light for some time to 
come. 

I have used the term Evangelicalism instead of 
Orthodoxy, when, individually, I should have pre- 
ferred the latter. My reason is, the term Orthodoxy 
signifies one thing in the East, and another in the 
West ; so that I could not make it so well serve my 
purpose. 

Hoping this book may receive the favorable recep- 
tion that has been accorded to my former works, I 
hand it out to a generous public, 

Subscribing myself, as ever, 

A Friend of Humanity, 

Moses Hull. 

Boston, January 1, 1873. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM ? 

PAGE 
Author describes his own Spiritualism. — Division of the Subject. — Reli- 
gion of Spiritualism. — Objections to the term Religion. — Ground of Ob- 
jection. — First Ideas, God a Spirit.— Second, Man a Spiritual Being.— 
Is Man infinite. — " Communion of Saints." — Revelation not infallible. 

— Some Parts of the Bible more important than others. — " Cause and 
Cure of Infidelity." — Burgon on the Bible. — What Spiritualism denies. 

— Total Depravity. — Who believes it. — Chicago Fire and its Lesson. — 
Atonement weighed in the Balance. — Man in the Garden. — Clark on Gen- 
esis ii. 16. — Benson on Same. — Buck and the Confession of Faith on the 
Penalty. — " Spiritual Death " defined. — Badly mixed. — Adam and Eve 
in Court. — A foolish Judge. — Adam's Dialogue with Men and Devils. 
— An unjust Judge. — The Principle applied to our Courts. — Conditions 
of vicarious Atonement. — Did Jesus die a spiritual Death ? — How can 
Man be vicariously redeemed from Hell? — Formal Worship and our 
Duty.— Shall we ask the Blessing ? — The Time for Worship and Sabbaths. 

— Vocal Prayer. — Jesus on public Prayer. — The Brotherhood of Man 
and its Corollaries. — Our Duty to the Family. — Endless Progression. — 
Man the Author of his own Heavens and Hells. — No Infallibility even 
among the Good. — Spiritual Philosophy and Philosophy of Spiritualism. 

— Source of Power. — Philosophy of Enhancement. — The inward Moni- 
tor. — No perfect Standard. — Science of making People good. — Rules of 
Life developed out of Conditions. — The Treatment of Sin. — Should Con- 
sumptives and Cripples be hung. — History of Spiritualism everywhere. 

— A. J. Davis's Prophecy. — Rapid Advancement of the Cause.— Fore- 
told Evils have not followed. — The present Work. — Concluding Sug- 
gestions 11 

5 



6 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER II. 

COMPARATIVE EVIDENCE OF THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALISM. 

No necessary Antagonism. — Christian Arguments used for Spiritualism. 

— Nicodemus's Argument. — The Works of Jesus and Mediums com- 
pared. — Did Jesus raise the Dead ? — Modern Resurrections. — Testimo- 
ny of Daily Papers. — A man resuscitated after having been buried ten 
Months. — Mrs. Lancaster resurrected. — Resurrection of Rev. William 
Tennent. — Jesus did not always succeed. — The healing at Bethesda 
only one of a thousand. — Why did he not heal others? — The Pente- 
costal Evidences considered. — Same in Spiritualism. — • Suicidal Argu- 
ment against Spiritualism. — Silly Spiritualism and the Bible compared. 

— Jesus eating Fish and Spirits eating Apples. — " Devils and Darkness " 
of Bible Times. — Biblical Evidence not conclusive. — Second-hand Evi- 
dence. — Ignorance of the People. — The Difference now. — Reporters on 
the Ground, Witnesses in Court, etc., etc. — Bible Evidences through 
bad Hands. — Testimony of Lardner, Casaubon, Selmer, et al, — Lying 
for the glory of God. — Testimony of eminent Christians. — Internal Ev- 
idences. — Abraham chasing his Enemies four hundred Years into the Fu- 
ture. — An old Boy. — That flock of Quails. — Samson jawing the Philis- 
tines. — Those fiery-tailed Foxes. — Can the Bible stand before its own 
Guns. — Did Samuel, Moses, and Elijah come back? — Bible can not be 
true and Spiritualism false. — Living Witnesses. — The Walls of Jericho. 

— A Dialogue 38 

CHAPTER III. 

TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALISM. 

The Boast of Christians. — Age of the Bible no Argument in its favor. — A 
few knotty Questions. — Author does not dispute the Designs of Chris- 
tianity. — Testimonies of Christians on the failure of Christianity. — 
Christians accuse each other. — Paul in a Dilemma. — His Plan of Escape. 

— Confessions of modern Christians. — Jesus' Parables leading in the 
wrong Direction. — The prodigal Son. — The unjust Steward. — Jesus 
commends the Scoundrel. — The unjust Judge. — Reasons for Prayer. — 
The Laborers in the Vineyard. — Does God play the same Game. — Bad 
Precepts. — Borrowing of the Egyptians. — Children of Israel not Slaves 
in Egypt. — What to do with bad Meat. — Punishment for religious Dif- 
ferences. —Treatment of bad Boys.— The Bible on Slavery. —On the 
treatment of Slaves. —The war upon the Midianites. — Biblical Temper- 
ance. — Sketches from Jesus' Sermon. — Jesus a disturber of domestic 
Relations. — A cool Reception. — Immoral Doctrines. — Works of no 
avail. — Character of the biblical God — The Difference. — The modus op- 
erandi of Salvation. — Proper Generation vs. Regeneration. — Recipe for 
making Hogs of Children. — How to cure Depravity. — Rest when Na- 
ture rests; work when she works. — North and South ends of People. 

— Ten syllogistic Arguments. — Conclusion. 54 



CONTEXTS. 7 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE MISSION OF SPIRITUALISM!. 

Spiritualism necessarily iconoclastic — A superior Light. — Jesus vs. Mo- 
ses.— The World's Light and Saviours.— Relation of Spiritualism to Chris- 
tianity. — The Decay of Institutions. — Babylon, Greece, Rome. — Repub- 
licanism as it was and is.— All stationary Institutions doomed. — The 
Good of all preserved. — A moving World. — A Glance at the Christian 
World. — " What went ye out for to see." — A lethargic State. — The In- 
fidel World. — A Feast of Negatives. — Dominion of Orthodoxy. — Pro- 
gramme changed. — Ministers on their good Behavior. — A Thought- 
awakener. — The Hydesville Manifestations. — The Fox Popidi. — Table 
Tippings. — New Theories of Explanation. — Writing Mediumship. — A 
new Set of Thoughts awakened. — Entrancement. — Sublimity of the Sub- 
ject. — Efforts to confound the Media. — Opposers confounded. — A Change 
of Base. — Anew Element of Success. — A Hearing obtained. — Number 
of its Adherents.— Elements of Success. — Not a Matter of Faith. — 
Quality of Spiritualists. — Their Happiness. — Questions for Skeptics. — 
Death and the Grave destroyed. — An outside Work. — A few Words 
with Spiritualists. — A Bid for your Spiritualism. —Our Duty 101 



CHAPTER V. 

THE CUI BOSO OF SPIRITUALISM. 

A proper Inquiry. — Its Work slow. — Jesus' Argument. — " By their 
Fruits shall ye know them." — Author's Experience. — A Struggle with 
Poverty. — Letter from Dr. Newton. — Reflections on the Same.— Author 
takes Courage. — Dr. Newton's Three Months' Work. — Suicide of a Girl. 

— Her dead Mother kept her from Sin. — Worldly Good of Spiritualism. 

— Serfs liberated. — Lizzie Keizer and the Apple Peddler. — Experience as 
a Healer. —Cure of a withered Hand. — A Lady saved. — That Bread 
Fund. — A Medium saved from a Railroad Accident. — A Train of Cars 
saved by Spirit Interposition. — Peter West saves a Train of Cars. — A 
Collision avoided. — A Conflagration saved by Spirits. — Pair of Shoes 
sent to a Beggar. — Inventions by Spirits. — Moral Good of Spiritualism. 
— A Methodist Lady in Trouble. — A Dialogue. — Petty Tyranny. — A 
Drunkard saved. — A Case in Wisconsin. — Case in Chicago. — Spirits 
curing Appetite for Tobacco. — A Medium compelled to restore his ill- 
gotten Money. — Other Stimulants to Purity. — " Be sure your Sins will 
find you out." — Mental good of Spiritualism. — Lady saved from Insanity 
by her Spirit Son. — Asylums cheated out of Subjects. — Case in Iowa. — 
Only a few Grains. — Spiritualism in a dying Hour, 122 



8 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VI. 

MINOR QUESTIONS. 

Asking and answering Questions, the difference. — Can not answer every 
Question. — Spiritualism necessarily crude at first. — May be modified. — 
How do Spirits operate? — Their Power over the Will. — Does Medium- 
ship indicate a weak Mind. — The controlling Spirit not necessarily with 
the Medium. — Author's Experiments. — Spirits control more than One 
at a time. — Sometimes control without knowing it. — A. J. Davis and 
Professor Vaughan. — " Arabula" and *« Human Nature." — E. D. Keene 
gives a Communication from a Man yet on Earth. — Why do Spirits lie ? 
— Fault often in the Medium. — Psychological Experiments. — Cause of 
Failure. — Reason why some get better Tests than others. — Why do not 
all Mediums give Tests. — Tests not always from personal Friends. — 
Psychology and Spiritualism. — All are Mediums. — David and his Medi- 
ums. — Philosophy of Dark Circles. — Biblical Manifestations in the 
Dark. — The Explanation. — Morality of Spiritualism. — Mediumship a 
Quickener. — Spiritualism and Sunshine. — Webster, Clay, et al. t whit- 
tled down. — The Explanation. — How to receive Spiritualism. — Why 
so many Indian Spirits. — The Indian Element positive. — Belongs in 
this Country. — Better Magnetizers. — More easily imitated Humbugs 
and the Self-deceived. — Experience of the Author. — Where are the 
Ancients. — Reasons why they do not return. — What Good can Spiritual- 
ism do ? — For what should we go to Spirits. — Demonstrates a Future. 
—What will Science do ? — Spiritual Sense. — Immortality Triumphant. . 151 



CHAPTER VII. 

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES AND SPIRITUALISM. 

An interesting Book. — Then and now, the Analogy. — A solemn Warning. 

— Skepticism of the Disciples. — " Infallible Proof." — Better Manifesta- 
tions To-day. — The waiting Time. — The Promise. — What is the Com- 
forter ? — Jesus' coming. — The Holy Ghost. — The two Men. — Synop- 
sis of Acts II. — The Cripple healed. — How it was done. — Peter in 
Court. — Admissions of his Adversaries. —House and Furniture shaken. 

— Ananias and Sapphira. — Shadow Cures. — The Same now. — Case in 
St. Louis. — Apostles imprisoned. — Liberated by Spirits. — Report of 
the Committee. — A modern Case. — A " Mysterious Man." — Stephen's 
Sermon. — Stephen a Clairvoyant. — Assassination of Stephen. — Peter as 
a developing Medium. — Simon does not understand the Matter. — Philip 
a Medium. — Angels talk to him. — A Spirit carries him away. — Author 
carried by Spirits. — Another Case. — A new Star 174 



CONTENTS. y 

CHAPTER VIII. 

MORE OF THE SAME. 

Saul of Tarsus. — A good Manifestation. — The Points stated. — Ananias a 
Medium. — Did Paul see Jesus? — Another Case of Healing. — Reanima- 
ation of Dorcas. — Cornelius's Vision. — A Test. — Peter's Entrancement. 

— Another Test. — Angel, Spirit, Man. — Peter's preaching. — Spirits 
eating and drinking. — A second Edition of Pentecost. — Peter's Defence 
before his Jewish Brethren. — Agabus prophesies under Spirit Power. — 
Peter released by Spirits. — Particulars of the Case. — Peter at the Gate, 
his Angel. — Is this true? — Elymas's psychological Blindness. — Paul 
on the Appearance of Jesus. — Paul heals a Cripple. — Narrative of Paul 
and Barnabas. — Who is the Man of Macedonia ? — Who is the Lord ? — 
Paul and the female Medium. — Who was the Spirit cast out? — Paul 
and Silas let out of Jail. — Prison shaken and Bands fall off in the Dark. 

— Iron Rings removed. — Strange Gods. — Apotheosized Men. — Hea- 
then Gods once Men. — Developing Circle at Ephesus. — " Handkerchiefs 
and Aprons." — A Minister denying his Bible. — The Spirits and the Sons 
ofSceva. — An Accident. — Paul prophesies. — Another Medium prophe- 
sies. — Paul relates his spiritual Experience. — Paul in a Trance. — 
Takes Sides with the Pharisees. — Communication to the Sailors. — A 
Ship saved by Spirits. — Among Barbarians. — A Snake Bite. — Success 

as a Healer.— A few Questions. — A word of Warning 190 



CHAPTER IX. 

WHAT IS EVANGELICALISM. 



A general Departure from Evangelicalism. — Bible on Infant Damnation. 
— The Gods of Orthodoxy. — Eternally begotten Son, meaning of. — Eter- 
nal Decrees. — Prayer and the Decrees. — Predestination and Reproba- 
tion. — Consequences of the Doctrine. — Presbyterian Justice. — The 
World made of Nothing in six Days. — The Fall of Man. — The Devil 
in the Snake. — All for God's Glory. — Adam totally depraved. — The Re- 
sult. — Very God and very Man. — God his own Son and Father. — A 
naughty Ghost. — Mary God's Mother. — A Pyramid of Absurdities. — 
Justice satisfied. — No Power to will. — Who are the Called? — Elect 
Infants. — Doom of Non-professors. — Saved by Christ's Righteousness 
alone. — Is a second Payment demanded. — Catechisms on Punishment. 
— Sinfulness of Goodness. — Perseverance of the Saints. — Spiritualism, 
twenty of its Points of Superiority. — Conclusion 216 



THE CONTRAST. 



CHAPTER I. 

WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM ? 

Author deseribes his own Spiritualism. — Division of the Subject. — Religion 
of Spiritualism. — Objections to the term Religion. — Ground of Objection. — 
First Ideas, God a Spirit. — Second, Man a Spiritual Being. — Is Man infinite. 

— " Communion of Saints." — Revelation not infallible. — Some Parts of the 
Bible more important than others. — " Cause and Cure of Infidelity." — Bur- 
gon on the Bible. — What Spiritualism denies. — Total Depravity. — Who be- 
lieves it. — Chicago Fire and its Lesson. — Atonement weighed in the Balance. 

— Man in the Garden. — Clark on Genesis ii. 16. — Benson on Same. — Buck 
and the Confession of Faith on the Penalty. — " Spiritual Death " defined. — 
Badly mixed. — Adam and Eve in Court. — A foolish Judge. — Adam's Dia- 
logue with Men and Devils. — An unjust Judge. — The Principle applied to our 
Courts. — Conditions of vicarious Atonement. — Did Jesus die a spiritual 
Death? — How can Man be vicariously redeemed from Hell? — Formal Wor- 
ship and our Duty. — Shall we ask the Blessing ? — The Time for Worship and 
Sabbaths. — Vocal Prayer. — Jesus on public Prayer. — The Brotherhood of 
Man and its Corollaries. — Our Duty to the Family. — Endless Progression. — 
Man the Author of his own Heavens and Hells. — No Infallibility even among 
the Good.— Spiritual Philosophy and Philosophy of Spiritualism. — Source 
of Power. — Philosophy of Entrancement. — The inward Monitor. — No per- 
fect Standard. — Science of making People good. — Rules of Life developed 
out of Conditions. — The Treatment of Sin. — Should Consumptives and 
Cripples be hung. — History of Spiritualism everywhere. —A. J. Davis's 
Prophecy. — Rapid Advancement of the Cause. — Foretold Evils have not 
followed. — The present Work. — Concluding Suggestions. 

It can not be expected that the question at the head 
of this chapter can be fully answered in one chapter, 

11 



12 THE CONTRAST. 

or even in an ordinary sized volume ; yet a synopsis 
of Spiritualism can be so stated in a single chapter 
that the reader can get an idea of its general features. 
Its panorama can be so unrolled that the observer can 
get enough of a view to decide whether it is worth 
the time it would take to go into a more thorough 
analysis of its minutice. 

I do not propose in this volume to be unnecessarily 
responsible for the general belief or practice of the 
great family of Spiritualists, nor are they responsible 
for anything I shall say or do. I can only, in my 
writings and actions, represent the Spiritualism of a 
single individual ; I shall therefore proceed to explain 
my own Spiritualism. 

In making the outlines of Spiritualism I shall divide 
it into four parts. I will consider, — 

1. Its Religion. 

2. Its Philosophy. 

3. Its Morals. 

4. Its History. 

THE RELIGION OF SPIRITUALISM. 

I use the term Religion, especially when I apply it 
to Spiritualism, in an accommodated sense. Strictly 
considered, it is a term I do not like ; it was invented 
to imply the restoration of man from the fall. It im- 
plies original sin, total depravity, and all its et ceteras. 
The term religion is a compound of two Latin words, 
re and ligo, signifying to re-bind, or bind again. As I 
never was unbound or cut loose from God, I need no 
re-binding. I never participated in any man's fall, 
much less that of old father Adam, therefore have 
no part or lot in his restoration. When, however, the 



WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM ? 13 

term religion is used in the sense of theology, or an 
effort to know and practice every duty, to arise daily 
to a purer and better life, Spiritualists are religious. 
Permit me, then, when I use the term religion in this 
chapter, to use it in this accommodated sense. 

The first idea in my spiritual theology is that, 
" God is a Spirit; " or rather, that God is spirit; for 
I never like to put a definite or indefinite article before 
the three letters, G-O-D. I would like the phrase- 
ology quite as well, and it would be equally as true, 
if it was reversed, so as to read, " Spirit is God." 

The next basic fact of Spiritualism is that man is a 
spiritual being, possessing all the attributes that belong 
to spirit anywhere. God has no attribute with which 
man is not endowed. Many of man's attributes and 
much of his power may be latent. Yet man has in 
germ all there is in the universe. Some do not know 
this, others do not believe it ; yet all recognize that 
they have powers to-day that they could not have 
used one year since. The fact is, you have no power 
to-day that was not born with you. It has taken all 
these years to develop and bring into activity the 
amount of power you now have. Man never has 
reached the Ultima Thule in any direction : that being 
the case, if there is an ultimatum, he does not know it. 

Does the objector urge that, though man has not 
circumnavigated, weighed, measured, and found the 
limits of his powers, he may yet find them ? I answer, 
the same applies to God. How does the God power 
know but that some time it may find a power too 
much for it ? When this question is answered, I will 
apply the answer to the spirit of man, which is the 
repository of infinite possibilities. 



14 THE CONTKAST. 

As two drops of water find an affinity for each other 
and intermingle, as oil blends with oil, so spirit, 
wherever it may be, blends with spirit. As spirits out 
of the body may blend with each other, and spirits in 
the body may blend with each other, so spirits out of 
the body and spirits in the body may interblend. 
The reader is by this time ready to understand that 
the first definite article in the spiritualistic faith is the 
doctrine of the communion of saints. 

Believing that under the proper conditions spirit 
can communicate with spirit, in either world, they of 
course believe in not only a daily, but, if necessary, a 
continuous revelation from spirits. All Spiritualists 
must therefore believe in inspiration and revelation ; 
yet they do not believe that any revelation is plenarily 
or infallibly inspired. Infallible inspiration to a falli- 
ble being is an impossibility. 

All revelation partakes more or less of the nature 
of that through which it comes ; hence, until media 
can be absolutely perfect in their physical organisms, 
the manifestations given through mediumship must be 
more or less imperfect. Water sometimes tastes of 
the vessel in which it is kept. Light always partakes 
of the color of the glass through which it comes. The 
mediums who wrote the Bible were certainly inspired, 
yet the inspiration could not prevent the writers' man- 
ifesting their own idiosyncrasies ; hence, even the 
Bible, though the work of inspiration, lacks a great 
deal of being perfect. A little reflection will convince 
any reasoner of the truth of this proposition. 

The most profound Bible believer regards some parts 
of the Bible as being more sacred and important than 
others ; but there can be no degrees in perfection ; 



WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM? 15 

therefore the Bible is not perfect. Who admires Da- 
vid's cursing psalm (theCIXth) as they do the XlXth 
or XXIId ? Reader, I appeal to you, if you were com- 
pelled to see some portions of the Bible annihilated, and 
could have your choice as to which you would yield, 
would you find any trouble in deciding whether to re- 
tain the Lord's Sermon or the history of the love affair 
between Boaz and Ruth ? Which do you prefer, the 
Song of Solomon or the Lord's Prayer ? The very fact 
that you could make a choice is proof that you do not 
regard the Bible as absolutely infallible. I now sub- 
mit that you agree with the Spiritualists that the Bi- 
ble, though inspired, is not an infallible revelation 
from God. All the inspiration of the spirit world 
could not spoil Paul's education or logic, nor yet make 
an educated man or logician of Peter. His brain was 
not the kind that could be inspired in that way. 

Occasionally one hears the idea advanced that the 
Bible is infallible ; but such cases are more rare than 
in former days. Rev. David Nelson, nearly a half 
century since, wrote a work entitled "the Cause and 
Cure of Infidelity" — a work, by the way, which, I 
think, has caused more infidelity than it ever cured ; 
in that he states that " every sentence and every 
part of a sentence of the Bible is plenarily inspired 
and infallibly true." 

Rev. Mr. Burgon, a later writer, says, " The Bible 
is none other than the voice of Sim that sitteth upon 
the throne ! Every book of it, every chapter of it, 
every word of it, every syllable of it, every letter of it 
[Good Heavens ! won't the man permit us to drop out 
just one letter ?] is the direct utterance of the Most 
High ! The Bible is none other than the word of 



16 THE CONTRAST. 

God — not some part of it more, some part of it less, 
but all alike, — the utterance of Him who sitteth upon 
the throne — absolute, faultless, unerring, supreme." 

The Rev. who penned the above doubtlessly would 
prize the obscene story of Onan, or Ezekiel's bread 
receipt, as highly as he would the " Golden Rule," 
or the first and greatest commandment. It is only 
occasionally that such fossils are met with. There 
are but few now who even think they believe in 
the absolute perfection of the Bible. A great ma- 
jority of the most devout Christians now recognize 
that the. character of each biblical writer is indicated 
in his writings. Thus any one who would read the 
Song of Solomon would need no statement as to the 
number of his wives and concubines for intelligent 
readers could not help but know that the number 
would only be limited by his ability to obtain them. 

Spiritualism in its dogmas is not purely affirmative ; 
it denies as well. Believing as it does that man is 
the offspring of the Most High, — that spirit sprang 
from spirit, — it necessarily denies the old church 
doctrine of original sin and consequent total deprav- 
ity. It knows no one so low, morally or intellectually, 
but that there is a divinity within him or her 'which 
will some time assert itself. I am by this subject as 
I am by that of inspiration ; I doubt whether one who 
allows himself to think on it can differ with Spiritual- 
ists, much less argue an opposite side of the question. 
It is possible that an individual, while reading Buck's 
Theological Dictionary, may for the moment conclude 
that man is so totally depraved that he can not do a 
good act, speak a good word, or think a good thought, 
unless especially aided by power from on high ; but 



WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM? 17 

such belief can only last a few seconds after the vol- 
ume is laid aside. 

No mother ever yet pointed to her own unconvert- 
ed child as a specimen of total depravity. No theolo- 
gian will point to his own son, however wicked he 
may be, and say, " There is no good in him." Such 
calamities as the fire that consumed Chicago in 1871 
afford an unanswerable argument against the dogma. 
That terrible calamity developed the fact that all — 
even theater actors, to whom the ministry had ever 
pointed as especial arguments in favor of the necessi- 
ty of men and women being made better — had divine 
natures, which as spontaneously went out in words 
and deeds in behalf of the suffering, as was manifest in 
any church in the land. The late James Fisk, whom 
almost every editor and preacher in the land had de- 
nounced as being a sinner above all others, had a 
noble quality, which in this instance responded to the 
prayers of sufferers in a ten thousand dollar check. 
When such men as A. T. Stewart, of New York, count 
out fifty thousand dollars to help the sufferers of a 
single calamity, and railroad kings grant the free and 
unlimited use of their roads to two hundred thousand 
sufferers, I can not for one moment admit that they 
are totally depraved. Even the Heathen Chinee, in 
the " Golden State," who have suffered more from 
the depravity of Christians than Christians ever have 
from heathens, magnanimously stepped forward and 
contributed thirteen thousand dollars to relieve the 
sufferings of their Christian brethren. 

Spiritualism, rejecting in toto the idea of the fall of 
man, has no use for an atonement. It does not be- 
lieve that man has ever been separated from God, 
2 



18 THE CONTRAST. 

therefore has no need to be made at one with him. 
Spiritualists generally regard the doctrine of the atone- 
ment not only as untrue, but as pernicious in its ten- 
dencies. Could they believe in an atonement at all, 
they could not believe in one based on vicarious suf- 
fering. It is said by Christians that Jesus suffered 
the penalty due for man's transgression, and in that 
made man at one with God, that is, placed him where 
he was before the fall. I know of no better way to 
explain this than to look after the results of the fall, 
as explained by Christians, and then apply Jesus' 
suffering and the atonement, and see the result. 

Man, according to the theories which see so much 
evil in Spiritualism, was made of dust, about six thou- 
sand years since, and placed in a garden, where every- 
thing was beautiful and good except one tree, that 
may have been both beautiful to the eye and pleasant 
to the taste ; yet there was either something intrinsi- 
cally poison in the fruit, or man for eating it was ar- 
bitrarily condemned. At least man was solemnly 
warned against eating the fruit, which warning he 
did not heed. The result is, according to orthodoxy, 
death, spiritual, temporal, and eternal death. Dr. 
Clarke says, — 

" Thou shalt surely die. Moth tamuth ; literally, a 
death thou shalt die ; or dying thou shalt die. Thou 
shalt not only die spiritually, by losing the life of God, 
but from that moment thou shalt become mortal." — 
Clarke's Com. on Gen. ii. 16. 

" The death here threatened is evidently to be con- 
sidered as opposed to the life (or lives, rather) which 
God has bestowed on him. This was not only the 
natural life of his body, in its union with his soul, but 



WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM? 19 

the spiritual life of his soul in its union with God, and 
the eternal life of both. The threatening then implies, 
Thou shalt not only lose all the happiness thou hast, 
either in possession or in prospect, and be liable to the 
death of the body, and all the miseries which precede 
and accompany it, but thou shalt lose thy spiritual 
life and ' become dead to God — dead to God and 
things divine, and shalt even forfeit thy title to immor- 
tality, and be liable to death eternal, and all this in 
the day thou eatest thereof" — Benson's Com. 

" The covenant of works was made with Adam ; the 
condition of which was his perseverance during the 
whole time of his probation. The reward annexed to 
his obedience was the continuance of him and his pos- 
terity in such perfect holiness and felicity as he then 
had, while upon earth, and an everlasting life with 
God hereafter. The penalty threatened for the breach 
of the commandment was condemnation, terminating 
in death, temporal, spiritual, and eternal." — Buck's 
Theological Dictionary, under " Covenant of Works" 

The Westminster Confession of Faith, pp. 45, 46, 
says, — 

" Every sin, both original and eternal, being a 
transgression of the righteous law of God, and con- 
trary thereunto, doth in its own nature bring guilt 
upon the sinner, whereby he is bound over to the 
wrath of God and curse of the law, and so made sub- 
ject to death, with miseries, spiritual, temporal, and 
eternal." 

Spiritual death they have defined to be a continua- 
tion in sin, a loss of all desire to do good, or, in other 
words, total depravity. This subject I have consid- 
ered in a former part of this chapter ; yet I should 



20 THE CONTRAST. 

feel that I had neglected my duty were I not to de- 
vote a few more words to it, considering it in the light 
of a penalty for the Adamic sin. 

The system of religion styling itself Orthodoxjr, 
though inconsistent on many points, rather overdoes 
itself on this. A loss of the desire to do good, which 
is defined to be spiritual death, and hence a part of 
the penalty of the Adamic law, must precede, and not 
follow, the transgression. It would puzzle even a doc- 
tor of divinity to tell how a man could willfully and de- 
liberately transgress a law until he had lost the desire 
to obey ! The consent of the mind must be obtained 
before the body would voluntarily act in that direc- 
tion. Hence Adam must have lost the desire to obey 
while he was pure and holy, before he transgressed ; 
that being the case, spiritual death was the cause, and 
not the penalty, of the Adamic sin. 

Spiritual death is defined to be simply a state of 
depravity, or being under the dominion of sin. 

Buck says, — 

" Spiritual death is that awful state of ignorance, 
insensibility, and disobedience, which mankind are in 
by nature, and which excludes them from the favor 
and enjoyment of God." — Theological Dictionary. 

Permit me for a moment to suppose this to be a 
truth, and the whole allegory of the transgression in 
the Garden of Eden to be a literal fact. The circum- 
stance would run something like this : " Adam and 
Eve transgressed, and are arraigned for trial, and called 
into court. After a full confession of their guilt the 
Judge proceeds to pronounce the penalty, that is, that 
they shall be sinners, — greater sinners, — totally de- 
praved. That is as if a judge should say to a horse 



WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM ? 21 

thief, " From your confession, I perceive that you have 
stolen a horse. I pronounce as a penalty that you 
shall be ahorse thief." Should the idea suggest itself 
to the culprit that horse stealing was the crime, and 
not the penalty, the judge would proceed to explain. 
" Sir, I perceive that you do not understand this pen- 
alty. I do not mean that it shall always remain a 
fact that you have stolen a horse, for that fact may, 
by a peculiar process, be blotted out ; but I do mean 
that you shall continue to steal horses. You shall be 
so totally given up to kleptomania that you will find 
it utterly impossible to resist the impulse to steal." 
Reader, what would you think of such an explanation 
of the penalty of horse stealing ? How foolish does 
the orthodox explanation make the God of the Bible, 
when it makes depravity the result of sin ! 

The absurdity of this has not yet reached its climax. 
Temporal or physical death, we are informed, is an- 
other portion of the penalty of Adam's sin. Suppose, 
according to this sentiment, that Adam and Eve go 
on for nearly nine hundred years, enjoying depravity, 
which is the penalty of depravity ; at the end of that 
time old father Adam finds that his locks have turned 
as white as the driven snow, his hearing has grown 
thick, his eyes dim, his limbs paralyzed, and his 
breath short. Something is wrong ; he does not know 
what it is, but for some cause his body refuses to per- 
form its functions. His sons and daughters gather 
around his bed and make the announcement, " Father, 
you are dying ! " " What, dying ! " says the old man. 
" Yes, physically dying." " Why is this? " inquires 
the expiring Adam, " Why," responds the son, " don't 
you remember the circumstance of eating the forbid- 



22 THE CONTRAST. 

den fruit ? The penalty was, ' In the day thou eatest 
thereof thou shalt surely die.' " "I well remember 
that," says the dying man, " but I have paid the pen- 
alty for that sin. I died a spiritual death in the very 
day I transgressed." "But," responds the son, " you 
ought to have had a spiritual birth ; it would have 
enabled you to have understood that the law meant 
that you should have died two kinds of death for that 
sin." The poor, dying man has only strength left to 
say, " Why did not the law express its meaning in 
unmistakable language ? " and expires. 

Every rational creature will join with him and say, 
" Adam, your complaints are just. This God is a ty- 
rant in inflicting a penalty not mentioned in the law. 
If God meant you should die more than once, he 
should have said so." 

Poor Adam's spirit leaves the body, hoping that 
with him this is the last of the consequences of having 
eaten the forbidden fruit ; but he hardly finds himself 
in the world of spirits, ere devils gather around him 
to drag him down to dark despair. They take him to 
the sulphurous regions, and as they unbar the door, 
and let the flames and smoke burst into his face, he 
inquires the meaning of this. He is answered, " This 
is death — eternal death." " And must I suffer this ? " 
inquires Adam ; "and for what?" He is again in- 
formed of his sin in Eden. Adam expostulates with 
the powers that be, pleading that he has already twice 
suffered the penalty for that sin ; but all to no pur- 
pose. He is answered, " God's ways are not as your 
ways," and plunged into a gulf of dark despair, to 
suffer, gnash his teeth, and gnaw his white-hot chains 
to all eternity. 



WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM? 23 

Suppose our courts were to act on the principle 
that orthodoxy represents God as adopting, with ref- 
erence to man's sin. The law says the penalty for 
petty larceny shall be confinement in the county jail 
for a period of time not exceeding thirty days. Neigh- 
bor A., having no money, and being hungry, steals a 
loaf of bread. He is caught, tried, found guilty, and 
sentenced to the jail. After remaining there the 
time allotted by the law, the proper officer comes to 
take him out. As A. is being conducted out of the 
jail, he says, " Well, I have violated your law and 
paid the penalty." " O, no," says the officer, " we 
are not done with you yet. You must now go to the 
state's prison, and be confined to hard labor for five 
years." " What ! Imprison me? and for what?" 
says A. " For stealing a loaf of bread," responds the 
officer. " But the law does not say so," says A. 
" It means it," is the reply. And poor A. is sent to 
the state's prison. 

At the end of five years the proper officer again 
approaches A., to release him. " There," says A., 
" I have broken your law, and paid two penalties for 
it ; are you now done with me ? " "No, sir," says 
the officer ; " you must now be hanged by the neck, 
until you are dead." A., startled and amazed, asks 
what he is to be hanged for ? He is again referred 
to the loaf of bread, and told that the penalty for 
petty larceny, when rightly interpreted, means all that 
has been and is to be inflicted on him. Now I ask, in 
all candor, would not every rational being in the 
world rebel at such a procedure ? Yet these are the 
lessons orthodoxy teaches us of God. 

Am I answered that this is not a full statement ; 



24 THE COOTKAST. 

that though we do believe in this moral, temporal, and 
eternal death, we believe, also, in the vicarious suffer- 
ing of Jesus, which brings man out, if he will, from 
under all these penalties ! Is that so ? 

The meaning of the word vicarious, is one suffering 
the penalty of the law instead of another. No one 
believes that the vicarious sufferings of Jesus entirely 
relieve the sinner from the consequence of sin. The 
most that is claimed is, that it reclaims and brings out 
from under spiritual and physical death, and saves 
from the other third of the penalty, which is eternal 
death, or rather eternal suffering. Thus, in order for 
Jesus to redeem man from spiritual death, or total 
depravity, he must endure the same, and have a spir- 
itual resurrection, or be converted. Did Jesus pass 
through this ? If not, vicarious suffering fails at the 
start, as Jesus did not endure it. If he did, " the 
wages of sin is death," and hence Jesus will have all 
he can do to die for his own sins, and not for those of 
Adam or the world. Supposing, however, that the 
vicarious sufferings of Jesus had redeemed man from 
spiritual death, his work is even then only one third 
done. Now man is to be redeemed from physical 
death : that is to be done, we are told, by Jesus' 
experiencing the same on the cross, and rising from 
the dead. Admitting all this to be accomplished, the 
worst is still to come. Man is to be vicariously re- 
deemed from an eternal hell. This of course can be 
done in no other way than by Jesus suffering the 
same. Thus, instead of an atonement, the logical 
sequence of orthodoxy is, that Christ and the whole 
human family must endure eternal torture in a lake 
of fire and brimstone. 



WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM ? 25 

The foregoing, with many other similar reasons, to- 
gether with an entire absence of proof of the fall of 
man and the atonement, are sufficient reasons for the 
Spiritualists' denials of the essentials of orthodoxy. 

Among the orthodox doctrines that Spiritualism 
denies, is its whole system of formal or ceremonial 
worship. Some even go so far as to think that if the 
whole system of forms and ceremonies was abolished, 
" the world would be the better for it." Spiritualists 
generally conceive that if there was not so much im^ 
portance attached to the baptisms, the eucharist, and 
other church ordinances, there would be more room 
to attach importance to real spiritual and intellectual 
development ; that if people did not study forms so 
much, they would study duties more ; that it is more 
our duty to see that widows and orphans are cared 
for, that the wants of the sick are relieved, than that 
certain hours are set apart to pray, or observe as holy 
time. 

Many evangelical Christians ask a blessing or re- 
turn thanks every time they sit down to their meals. 
Spiritualists believe that good, healthy food, taken in 
proper quantities and at proper times, is a blessing to 
the partaker, without any words being said over it. 
Improper food, or food taken in improper quantities, 
or at improper hours, can not be sanctified to the 
use of those who partake. The partaking of it is a 
curse. No God would dare to bless it. It would be 
setting an example which would ruin the world with 
dyspepsia, liver complaint, and gout. The fact that 
orthodox Christians are as likely to be troubled with 
all these complaints as are infidels and Spiritualists, 
proves their blessings to be only " as sounding brass 
or tinkling cjonbal." 



26 THE CONTRAST. 

Spiritualists can not see why a formal blessing 
should be asked any more over each meal, than over 
every drink of water or every apple or nut eaten 
between meals ; or why people should not, upon the 
same principle, go through the same ceremony at their 
bedside, their chopping, blacksmithing, or dish-wash- 
ing. The fact is, while it is always proper to be rev- 
erential to all there is above and beyond us ; and as- 
piring toward the good, the pure, and the beautiful, 
these foolish stated ceremonies, while they clothe one 
with the appearance or form of godliness, so effectu- 
ally clip the wings of true devotion, that they destroy 
the power thereof. Any forms or ceremonies that 
compel their adherents to bow to them for fashion's 
sake, must more or less stultify the natural outgushing 
of the same. It must be confessed that often while 
the lips are saying prayers or singing praises the heart 
is on business, or somewhere else, as far from the 
service of the lips as the poles are from each other. 

Spiritualists believe the proper time to eat is when 
one is hungrj^, the proper time to rest or sabhatize 
is when one is tired ; so the proper time to pray is 
when the spirit of prayer comes, and at no other time. 
Then pray, whether in an audience chamber, a ma- 
chine shop, or a brick yard. Withdraw your person 
from the crowd if convenient ; if not, retire into your 
soul's secret closet, and there commune with the 
higher spiritual life. As prayer is purely an aspira- 
tion, no vocal words need, as a general thing, be used. 
If prayer is for God's benefit, that he may know and 
be willing to redress our wants, certainly, God being 
spirit, reads our spirit and understands our requests 
without our framing them into words. Spiritualists 



WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM? 27 

generally think that the power we call God has an 
understanding of its business, therefore do not believe, 
to any great extent, in dictating what it shall and 
shall not do. 

A prayer is a plea made ; but a plea for Almighty 
God to do something, implies that the one making the 
plea either fears that God would neglect his duty, or 
that he wants something that God could not bestow 
without going outside of his duty. In one instance 
prayer implies that God is derelict in his duty, in the 
other that God is wanted to do something more than 
justice. Spiritualists do not generally believe that 
man could at present control matters very much by 
prayer, if he would ; nor do they believe that the 
machinery of the universe would run much more 
smoothly if men controlled it all by their prayers. 

Prayer before an audience is, as Jesus said, made to 
be heard of men. His words are, — 

" And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the 
hypocrites are : for they love to pray standing in the 
synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they 
may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They 
have their reward. 

" But thou when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, 
and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father 
which is in secret ; and thy Father which seeth in se- 
cret, shall reward thee openly." (Matt. vi. 5, 6.) 

For one, I am perfectly willing that those who re- 
gard Jesus as one third of the Infallible Deity, may 
violate these words; I must obey them. When I 
pray before an audience, let it be understood I am like 
others: I pray to be heard of men. Prayer is the 
birth pangs of new desires, new asi^irations, Dew in- 



28 THE CONTRAST, 

spirations ; the proper place for it is in the secret 
closet. When the spirit of prayer comes, be sure it is 
the precursor of something good. Go to your secret 
closet in the dark if possible, shut everything external 
away from you, then open your heart, your aspirations, 
your soul. Under these circumstances the angel 
within you and angels without can come nearer to- 
gether, and soul will commune with souls more per- 
fectly than under other conditions. 

Spiritualism, believing as it does that man is a spir- 
itual being, and that all sprang from the fountain of 
spirit called God, can not believe otherwise than in 
the brotherhood of man, however far back we may be 
compelled to find the evidence of that brotherhood : 
all are streams from the same great fountain. Believ- 
ing this doctrine, of course they can not believe in 
any practice, nor consistently practice any belief that 
would be contrary to these sentiments. Lawsuits, 
quarrels, fights, slavery, war, or neighbor lying to or 
cheating neighbor, is not brotherly. Spiritualists can 
bat be opposed to such things. This doctrine of 
brotherhood should, w^hen carried to its legitimate 
extent, go farther than to teach us what we should 
not do to each other: it should teach us positive 
duties to each other. If all men and women are my 
brothers and sisters, then I am under obligation to 
do the duty of a brother by all, — to help the weak 
and unfortunate, to relieve the suffering, and as far 
as in me lies, to see that each has justice in all things. 
Men are sometimes inclined to trample on each other. 
Reader, do you realize that the crushed and the one 
who crushes are both your brothers ? Have you no 
duties in such cases? That woman in the brothel. 



WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM? 29 

whom you call fallen, is your sister, as mucli so as the 
most pious lady on earth. One of our elder brothers, 
Jesus, said to one such, " Neither do I condemn thee : 
go and sin no more." Will you consider her a sister, 
and say the same ? You have duties here. Once 
more. When about to lead a young man into a gam- 
bling hell or a drinking saloon, or a young woman 
into a house of assignation, think this is my brother 
or sister. I am, as a stronger brother, bound in honor 
for his or her protection — not destruction ; such 
thoughts should turn you from your evil purpose. 

In passing judgment upon those called sinners, try 
to think of such as brothers and sisters, — weak, sick- 
ly brothers and sisters, — " flesh of your flesh, and bone 
of your bone." More than all, spirit of your spirit — 
of God's spirit. Consider yourself, least you should 
also be tempted. 

" This life is a play, where each human heart, 
To make the denouement, must act out its part. 
If all men, like sheep, would follow one way, 
Then life would indeed be a very poor play. 
'Tis a law of our being, most pointedly shown, 
That each soul must live out a life of his own. 
Ah ! be not too rash to judge of another, 
But ever remember that man is your brother. 
God made the owl see where man's sight is dim, 
And the light that guides you may be darkness to him ! 
'Tis a great truth to learn, — a prize if you win it, — 
There's room in the world for all that is in it." 

Following the thought of the brotherhood of man, 
in Spiritualism is that of endless progression. There 
are very few outside of the ranks of Spiritualists who 
believe this doctrine, and those who do are hardly 
able to tell why, much less to demonstrate the ground- 



30 THE CONTRAST. 

work of that faith. According to Spiritualism, man 
enters the next world just where he leaves this, sur- 
rounded by the conditions that he has made for him- 
self by his words and acts in this world, and then in 
the other world goes on making his own misery or 
happiness by his conduct. 

Man is now, and will eternally be, what he makes 
himself. Heaven and hell are both latently within 
every one. God will not go out of his way to put 
any one into happiness or misery. The fuel, the kin- 
dling-wood, and the match that lights the fires of hell, 
are within every one ; and if ever the fires of hell are 
ignited, the sinner himself will do the incendiary 
work, and take the consequences. 

Spiritualism does not allow that any one, even in 
heaven, is infallible. Those called good can, in the 
spirit world as in this, make mistakes ; and the bad 
are not wholly bad. There is no absolute perfection 
in the universe : man always has, and ever will im- 
prove. Here it may be well to close the argument on 
the religion of Spiritualism. Should I devote as much 
time to each department of this chapter as I have to 
this, it would swell itself to a volume. I now pass to 
a consideration of the 

PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUALISM. 

Two widely different things are often sadly con- 
founded : one is the Philosophy of Spiritualism, the 
other is the Spiritual Philosophy. By the latter 
phrase, Spiritualists mean the general laws or princi- 
ples taught in or drawn out of Spiritualism. By the 
former, they mean the general laws or principles by 
which the various spiritual phenomena are produced. 



WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM? 31 

Permit me first, in this division of the subject, to 
speak of general spirit intercourse. All volition or 
power inheres in spirit. I move the pen with which 
I now write, by moving the bones of my hand ; these 
bones are moved by the muscle, the muscle is moved 
by the blood, the blood is driven by the electric cur- 
rents which pass from the brain through the nerves ; 
these currents are set in motion by the spirit. Thus 
the writing of this book, and in fact every motion of the 
hand, foot, or head, is a physical manifestation of spirit- 
power. Spirit can operate on nothing but spirit, or 
that which is next to it, which is electricity. When 
spirits move tables or chairs, or rap out answers to 
questions, they use only natural powers ; they get 
control of the electrical currents there are in the room 
or around the table, and through them move pondera- 
ble substances. 

Every nerve is a battery, through which spirit drives 
the electric current. Brain is but a congress of 
nerves, and therefore a stronger battery. Through 
these brain and nerve forces spirits can sometimes 
approach and move ponderable substances. 

The philosophy of entrancement is much the same. 
The brain is a battery through which spirits, when 
they get it well charged, can approach mortals, and 
hand their thoughts to the external world. The 
power of mediumship is more the power to hold still 
and submit to extraneous influences, than anything 
else. Spirit control is the same, whether effected by 
a spirit out of the body or in the body. In another 
chapter the reader will find that I have more fully 
discussed the philosophy of Spiritualism, explaining 
the necessity for darkness in order to produce certain 



32 THE CONTRAST. 

manifestations ; also, I have offered a few thoughts on 
the general conditions of spirit manifestations. I now 
pass to consider 

THE MORALS OF SPIRITUALISM. 

There is no question on which there exists greater 
differences of opinion than on this. It is true that 
Spiritualism, to some extent, ignores old traditions, 
authorities, and standards. It is also true that old ideas 
of morality, unless they have something more than age 
to recommend them, are below par among some of 
the Spiritualists. This is enough to cause certain per- 
sons, who borrow their ideas of right from the past, to 
see all the evidence that could possibly be required to 
prove that Spiritualism is leading the people away 
from virtue's paths. There are people in the world 
who could not be convinced that ancient landmarks 
can be departed from without ignoring every rule of 
right, and having a general chaos ensue. With oth- 
ers, there seems an actual necessity of departing from 
the old, as it has, after eighteen centuries of experi- 
ence and effort, failed to make moral men and women 
of even its own adherents. Spiritualists have, many 
of them, noted the slavery, war, drunkenness, mur- 
der, burglary, and licentiousness yet in the world, 
and often practiced under the very steeples of the 
churches, and sometimes by ministers who occupy the 
pulpits. This occasionally causes one to say, as many 
more think, There is a radical wrong somewhere ; 
Christianity, as a system, has failed to make the world 
good. Thus investigation has led them to conclude 
that Christianity has too nearly ignored or rejected 
the inward monitor ; that if people had been looking 



WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM? 33 

within more, instead of to outside standards of right, 
and had striven to more thoroughly cultivate the ac- 
quaintance of the internal monitor, and developed 
good from within, working it out into every day prac- 
tice, the world would to-day have been nearer heaven. 
Hence Spiritualism, if it has not already done so, must 
in a measure reject outside authorities with regard to 
right and wrong. In fact, until man is absolutely 
perfect, there can be no universal and infallible stan- 
dard of right and wrong. It is acknowledged on all 
hands that man is more or less the creature of circum- 
stances. Thousands of the Christians to-day, who de- 
nounce others for not looking through their glasses, 
owe all their Christianity to the circumstance of their 
having been born and reared at tlie time and place, 
and under the circumstances that have in turn been 
regarded as blessings or curses. Had they been born 
in a Mohammedan country, and educated by Moham- 
medan parents and teachers, they would probably 
denounce " Christian dogs " as infidels, worthy of 
nothing better than a Mohammedan hell. When it is 
understood that all are not born and reared under the 
same circumstances, it will be understood that all can 
not be tried by the same standard. I doubt whether 
any one, after a little reflection, would hold an idiot 
as thoroughly responsible for an infringement on the 
rights of others as they would one of greater capacity. 
We are all responsible in proportion to our capacity 
and development. This being the case, when a man 
kills another, the blame, if there be any, lies back of 
the murderer : it goes at least as far back as the cause 
that made him such. Our courts are beginning to 
recognize this idea : scarcely a murderer is tried but 
3 



3i THE CONTRAST. 

an effort is made, often with success, to prove him 
insane. Every child has a right to demand of society 
a birth and rearing beyond that of a murderer : con- 
ditions that will preclude the possibility of murder. 
The crimes of the present generation point to the 
sins of the past, and those to the past, and so ad infi- 
nitum. 

Believing this, Spiritualists generally doubt wheth- 
er the world can be reformed by precepts. They argue 
that men now know better than they can do. Spir- 
itualists are therefore trying to develop a philosophy, 
the carrying out of which will as naturally make man 
better as the spring showers and sun will quicken 
vegetation into germination. Spiritualists claim that 
a child, begotten by the proper parents (those whose 
union should produce children), and under proper 
conditions, can not possibly be as bad as one begotten 
and born under other conditions. Many of them 
claim that if a child is properly generated and reared, 
he needs no regeneration. A person raised in filth 
and on improper food can not, out of that, develop 
as pure rules of life, nor a practice of as pure pre- 
cepts, as one well washed, who lives in the right kind 
of a house, breathes the right kind of air, sleeps in the 
right kind of beds, wears the right kind of clothing, 
and eats food calculated to develop the right kind of 
brain and muscle. Therefore, instead of denouncing 
sin and sinners, they are going to work to eradicate 
sin and cure sinners. Moral and mental disease 
should be made a study, and treated in a manner anal- 
agous to the treatment of physical disease. All who 
have followed me thus far, are prepared to hear me 
say, that our courts are no more justifiable in hanging 



WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM? 35 

a murderer than they would be in hanging a consump- 
tive, hunchback, or paralytic. 

If the foregoing argument is true, no book standard 
of right and wrong can be given, any more than a book 
should regulate how often the heart should beat, or 
how often its readers should sneeze or cough, or how 
many fits of ague he should have, and by what inter- 
vals they should be separated. One will take cold 
more frequently than another, in spite of all the books 
in the world ; so the one born a kleptomaniac will 
steal more frequently than the one having no tempta- 
tion in that direction. Books can not stop it. 

HISTORY OF SPIRITUALISM. 

The reader will not understand from the above 
heading that it is my design to go into the minutice 
of the history of the Spiritual movement. To do that 
would require a volume as large as Webster's large 
dictionary ; besides, it is at this stage of its develop- 
ment quite an unnecessary work. The history of 
Spiritualism besides, in part at least, written in books, 
is so perfectly engraved on the minds of the readers 
of this volume, that but little need be said. The 
every-day occurrences of the spiritual phenomena, in 
almost every department of the globe, has given it 
such a Avide-spread notoriety, that enough of its his- 
tory is within easy reach of every one to answer the 
purpose of this book. 

Modern spirit manifestations came into the world 
unsought and unheralded, except by A. J. Davis, the 
Poughkeepsie seer. As much as four years before the 
" Rochester knockings," he was laughed at and re- 
garded as insane, for publishing that the spirit world 



36 THE CONTRAST. 

and this world would soon come in communication 
with each other. In fulfillment of Mr. Davis's proph- 
ecy, Spiritualism came undesired and unwelcomed. 
With no preacher or press to advocate its claims, it 
immediately began to make converts, gathering among 
its adherents persons of every rank and station in 
life. Editors, ministers, lawyers, doctors, actors on 
the stage, in short, men from every rank and station 
in life, fell before this mighty power. Nothing has 
stayed or even retarded the onward march of this 
new conqueror of the world. It has not only proved 
its right to life by living and thriving through all 
opposition, but it has questioned the right of hoary- 
headed errors to longer stay the march of mind. The 
doctrines that have been examined in this chapter 
have slunk away before Spiritualism, as bats and owls 
retire before the rising sun. 

Although Spiritualism has in some way interwoven 
itself into the every-day reading, thoughts and life of 
the great majority of the Christian world, besides 
making between ten and fifteen millions of out-and- 
out converts ; and although it has instilled itself into 
about all the literature, and almost everything else 
of the age, the evils that were prophesied by ministers 
and editors as sure to follow, have in no case ensued. 
Those who embrace the new religion, instead of be- 
coming the lawless horde of religious and spiritual 
adventurers, that some had prophesied as being the 
inevitable result, settled down, attending to their OAvn 
business, with an honor, integrity, and ability often 
excelling their evangelical neighbors. 

Spiritual halls are now being built, lyceums found- 
ed, societies incorporated, Young People's Spiritual 



WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM? 37 

associations organized, libraries and reading-rooms 
opened, and in every instance well patronized. Thus 
Spiritualism is now, as never before, compelling the 
world to feel and acknowledge its power. With this 
increase of converts and societies, there is a com- 
mensurate increase of knowledge and zeal among 
older Spiritualists. Old societies that had measurably 
become " weary in well doing," are reorganizing and 
buckling on the harness anew. New and talented 
speakers are being called into the field, and mediums 
for every form of manifestation are being faster and 
more perfectly developed than ever before. Thus is 
Spiritualism rapidly writing its own history in the 
hearts and heads of the people. More perfectly and 
indelibly does Spiritualism do its own history making 
than could possibly be told by my poor pen, were I 
to devote volumes to the elucidation of the subject. 

Patient reader, with this in* some respects brief, and 
in others prolix outline of what Spiritualism is, I 
close this statement, hoping that you have so fallen in 
love with what has been described as Spiritualism, as 
to be induced to follow me through the remainder of 
this volume. 



38 THE CONTBAST. 



CHAPTER II. 

COMPARATIVE EVIDENCE OF THE BIBLE AND SPIR- 
ITUALISM. 

No necessary Antagonism. — Christian Arguments used for Spiritualism. — 
Nicodemus's Argument. — The Works of Jesus and Mediums compared. — 
Did Jesus raise the Dead ? — Modern Resurrections. — Testimony of Daily Pa^ 
pers. — A man resuscitated after having been buried ten Months. — Mrs. Lan- 
caster resurrected. — Resurrection of Rev. William Tennent. — Jesus did not 
always succeed. — The healing at Bethesda only one of a thousand. — Why 
did he not heal others? — The Pentecostal Evidences considered. — Same in 
Spiritualism. — Suicidal Argument against Spiritualism. — Silly Spiritualism 
and the Bible compared. — Jesus eating Fish and Spirits eating Apples. — 
" Devils and Darkness " of Bible Times. — Biblical Evidence not conclusive. 

— Second-hand Evidence. — Ignorance of the People. — The Difference now. 

— Reporters on the Ground, witnesses in Court, etc.. etc. Bible Evidences 
through bad Hands. — Testimony of Lardner, Casaubon, Selmer, et al. — 
Lying for the glory of God. — Testimony of eminent Christians. — Internal 
Evidences. — Abraham chasing his Enemies four hundred Years into the Fu- 
ture. — An old Boy. — That flock of Quails. — Samson jawing the Philis- 
tiues. — Those fiery-tailed Foxes. — Can the Bible stand before its own Guns. 

— Did Samuel, Moses, and Elijah come back ?— Bible can not be true and Spir- 
itualism false. — Living Witnesses. — The Walls of Jericho. — A Dialogue. 

Those who oppose the inauguration of the Spirit- 
ual dispensation, do not seem to have ever been able 
to comprehend that a person could believe both the 
Bible and Spiritualism. Let a person announce him- 
self a Spiritualist, and he is at once set down by its 
opposers as having totally rejected the Bible. Those 
acquainted with the opposition can not fail to have 
observed that in lectures, books, and essays against 
Spiritualism there has ever been an effort to create 
the impression that one embracing Spiritualism must 



EVIDENCE OF THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALISM. 89 

necessarily have rejected the Bible. While such is not 
the case, I must confess that if I could not receive the 
truths and divinity of both — if I should be compelled 
to yield one or the other, the evidence of the truth 
and divinity of the Bible does not impress me as being 
so forcible as that of Spiritualism. 

Individually I had much rather be permitted to 
choose the good of each, without any reference to the 
other. I can not see why Spiritualism should neces- 
sarily be evil or false because the Bible is good and 
true, nor can I understand how or why a reception 
of the truths of Spiritualism should involve a rejec- 
tion of those taught in the Bible. Now, without any 
disparagement to the Bible or its contents, I propose 
to gratify the opposers of Spiritualism by a brief com- 
parison of the evidences of the two systems. I know 
of no better way to commence this comparison than 
with the following proposition, viz, : — 

THE ARGUMENTS USED IN FAVOR OF THE BIBLE 
APPLY WITH ALL THEIR FORCE TO MODERN SPIR- 
ITUALISM. 

One of the first and most general arguments used 
in favor of the Bible and its chief hero, is that of Nic- 
odemus, in John hi. 2. " Rabbi, we know that thou 
art a teacher come from God : for no man can do these 
miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. 1 ' 
It is claimed that Nicodemus was a member of the 
Jewish Sanhedrim, and probably went as a represen- 
tative of that body. He did not say I think, or I 
know, but we know that thou art a teacher come from 
God, etc. Thus he expresses either the faith of the 
Jewish senate, whose committee he was, or that of 



40 THE CONTRAST. 

the nation. The argument is that Jesus' miracles 
were sufficient to call out the universal and unequivo- 
cal confession that he was a divinely sent teacher. If 
the Jews, his bitterest enemies, acknowledged his 
miracles, they must have occurred, and if they did 
occur, they prove the divinity of the religious system 
they were wrought to maintain. Thus by a " short 
method " is the Christian system lumped off, and 
proved of divine origin. 

Now, I do not know of a Spiritualist who objects to 
this first argument for Christianity. We are perfectly 
willing it shall stand ; all we ask is, that if the same 
reasons be found for believing in Spiritualism, they 
have the same weight in proving its divinity. Permit 
me to compare the works of Jesus and the early Chris- 
tians with those of modern spirit mediums. The clear- 
est statement of Jesus' works is made by himself in 
Matt. xi. 5 : " The blind receive their sight, and the 
lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, 
the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel 
preached to them. And blessed is he whosoever shall 
not be offended in me." 

These were the wonderful works by which Jesus 
was proved, according to Nicodemus's statement, to 
have come from God ; and I myself think they are 
full proof of the God power. I submit, that if the 
logic of Jesus was good, and he presented this as a 
proof of the divinity of his mission, it would prove as 
much for any other person doing the same work. I 
myself have seen mediums do all that Jesus claims to 
have done, with the exception of raising the dead ;. 
and I have known of that being done in the same 
sense that Jesus did it. No Jesus, nor any other per- 



EVIDENCE OF THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALISM. 41 

son, ever raised an absolutely dead person to life. As 
well talk of organizing a dozen bacon hams into the 
form of a human body, and making them live. Per- 
sons have gone into a cataleptic state, and been sup- 
posed to be dead, and have been reanimated. It not 
unfrequently occurs that doctors pronounce persons 
dead who are not dead. Certificates of burial are 
granted for persons who outlived those who signed 
them. The writer of this volume was once measured 
for a coffin ; he also has a brother who has been pro- 
nounced dead at four different periods of his life. 
Should any one undertake to bury him now, after 
being four times scientifically dead, they would find a 
hard corpse to handle. 

The maid that orthodoxy accuses Jesus of raising 
from the dead, had not been dead. At least, Jesus 
said of her, " She is not dead, but sleepeth." (Luke 
viii. 51.) Of Lazarus, Jesus said, " This sickness is 
not unto death, but for the glory of God." (John xi. 
4.) Lazarus was supposed to be dead and entombed, 
it is true, so was a lady in Quincy, 111., but she aston- 
ished the multitude by coming out of the tomb. The 
daily papers report that a lady was sent from Chicago, 
111., to Rochester, N. Y., for burial, but when she got 
there was resuscitated, and returned to her home. 
J. H. Weaver, an undertaker in Baltimore, Md., in- 
formed me that in removing dead bodies he had found 
several that had evidently come to life and struggled 
to get out of their coffins. 

I have to-day clipped the following from the Cin- 
cinnati Commercial of February 20, 1872 : — 

" The Oshkosh Times says, Mr. Fuss, proprietor of 
the Fuss House, at Menasha, Wisconsin, was thought 



42 THE CONTRAST. 

to have died on the 8th inst., and preparations were 
made for the burial. The funeral was postponed until 
the 11th, when the friends of the deceased gathered 
to the last rites. Just before the coffin was closed 
some of the friends noticed that the supposed corpse 
was perspiring quite freely. A physician was called 
in, who proceeded to bleed the man, when the blood 
flowed, and he soon came too and recognized the anx- 
ious mourners. He is now doing well, and in a fair 
way of recovery." 

The following is from the Cincinnati Gazette of 
March 5, 1872 : — 

" A man was found at Hall's Corners, Westchester 
County, N. Y., on Monday night, apparently frozen to 
death. The body was taken to Tarrytown, and the 
coroner from Hastings held an inquest over it, a ver- 
dict being rendered accordingly. The body was 
placed in a coffin, and started for Sleepy Hollow Cem- 
etery. As the coffin was about to be lowered into 
the grave, a noise proceeded from it, causing the inter- 
ment to be delayed long enough to discover that the 
man was alive. Last night the supposed corpse was 
sitting by the fire at the Farrington Depot, reflecting 
on things earthly. His name has not been ascer- 
tained." 

Professor S. B. Britton, on page 471-2 of " Man 
and his Relations " (a work that every thinker should 
study), relates the history of the burial and resur- 
rection of a man who was, by artificial means, thrown 
into a cataleptic state. The man, after being buried 
ten months, and having a crop of barley raised on his 
grave, was restored to life. This case is well authen- 
ticated ; so are numerous others. I submit that they 



EVIDENCE OF THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALISM. 43 

border as much on the miraculous as any recorded in 
the Bible. Permit me to give the history of two 
cases, as great, at least, as the resurrection of Lazarus. 

Mr. Britton says, " Some time since the writer re- 
ceived from E. G. Fuller, Esq., a gentleman of un- 
questioned intelligence and veracity, — whose resi- 
dence is in Cold Water, Mich., — the main facts of 
a case of peculiar interest, and which will afford a 
striking illustration of my subject. Columbia Lancas- 
ter, a lawyer, who formerly lived in Centreville, St. 
Joseph's County, Mich., removed, in the autumn of 
1840, to Missouri, with a view to going to Oregon, 
in the spring of 1841. He accordingly started, and 
pursued his course to the distance of several days' 
journey beyond Fort Laramie, when his wife, who ac- 
companied him, became seriously ill. He waited a 
day or two, in the hope that Mrs. L. would speedily 
recover. But her illness continued, and he directed 
the rest of the company — except one man who re- 
mained to assist him in the care of his wife — to 
proceed on their way, himself designing to follow 
them as soon as the patient was sufficiently recovered, 
or to return should she be unable to continue the 
journey. 

" But Mrs. Lancaster grew worse, and the man who 
remained with Mr. Lancaster and his lady, was sent 
back to Fort Laramie for medicines. He had been 
gone but a short time when the patient expired. Mr. 
Lancaster remained there with the form of his fair 
companion, until the man came back from the Fort. 
On his return he was accompanied by two Indians, 
who were strongly attached to Mrs. Lancaster, on ac- 
count of her previous kindness to them. The Indians 



44 THE CONTRAST. 

formed a litter, by placing blankets and other suitable 
articles on poles. On this rude carriage the body was 
placed, and the Indians conveyed it some three hun- 
dred miles through the wilderness, fording streams, 
and surmounting whatever obstacles were in the way. 
On arriving at Fort Laramie, preparations were made 
for the funeral ; but before the remains were finally 
disposed of, and eight days after Mrs. Lancaster was 
supposed to have died, the body exhibited signs of re- 
turning life, and by degrees was fully restored ! When 
Mrs. Lancaster had so far recovered as to be able to 
converse, she assured her friends that she was all the 
while perfectly conscious of everything that occurred, 
and she even related the conversation and several 
incidents that transpired during the journey." 

The same author, on pages 479 and 480, has the fol- 
lowing : " The case of Rev. William Tennent, of New 
Jersey, a clergyman of the Presbyterian branch of the 
church, is one of the most remarkable on record. While 
conversing with his brother in Latin respecting the 
state of the soul, and his prospects in the life to come, 
he expressed doubts concerning his future happiness. 
Just at that moment he suddenly lost the power of 
speech and voluntary motion : he was apparently in- 
sensible, and his friends believed that the spirit had 
vacated its earthly tabernacle. Arrangements were 
accordingly made for the appropriate solemnities ; but 
his physician, who was also a warm personal friend, 
was not satisfied, and at his request the funeral rites 
were delayed. Three days passed; the eyes, were 
rayless, the lips discolored, and the body cold and 
$tiff y T]ae brother insisted that the remains should be 
entombed, The critical hour at length arrived, the 



EVIDENCE OF THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALISM. 45 

people had assembled, and the occasion was about to 
be solemnized by appropriate ceremonies, when the 
whole company were startled by a fearful groan! 
The eyes were opened for a moment but closed again, 
and the form remained silent and motionless for an 
hour. Again a heavy groan proceeded from the 
body, and the eyes were opened ; but in an instant 
all signs of returning animation had vanished. 

" After another interval of an hour, life and con- 
sciousness, with the power of voluntary motion, were 
measurably restored. After his restoration, it was 
found that Mr. Tennent had lost all recollection of 
his former life, and the results of his education and 
experience were wholly obliterated from his mind. 
He was obliged to learn the alphabet of his vernac- 
ular. His memory at length returned, and with it 
his former mental possessions ; but his doubts respect- 
ing a future life were all dissipated for ever. During 
his absence from the body he was intromitted to the 
heavens, and, like Paul, heard and saw things unut- 
terable. The trances and visions of the ancient proph- 
ets and apostles were intrinsically no more remarka- 
ble than this experience of Mr. Tennent." 

While on this subject, it may not be amiss to add 
that Victoria C. Woodhull relates, and actually be- 
lieves, that her son was dead, and she, by her medi- 
umistic power, restored him to life. 

It is true that mediums do not always succeed in 
their undertakings : neither did Jesus. When they 
were offended at Jesus in his own country, where he 
was the best known, and his power the best under- 
stood, he answered, " A prophet is not without honor, 
save in his own country, and his own house." The 



46 THE CONTRAST. 

evangelist adds, " And he did not many mighty works 
there, because of their unbelief." (Matt. xiii. 58.) 

A case that at once illustrates Jesus' power, and 
lack of power, is found in John v. 1-9. " After this 
there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to 
Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep 
market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue 
Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great 
multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, 
waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel 
went down at a certain season into the pool, and trou- 
bled the water : whosoever then first after the trou- 
bling of the water stepped in was made whole of what- 
soever disease he had. And a certain man was there, 
which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When 
Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a 
long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou 
be made whole ? The impotent man answered him, 
Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put 
me into the pool: but while I am coming another 
steppeth down before me. Jesus saith unto him, Rise, 
take up thy bed and walk. And immediately the 
man was made whole, and took up his bed and 
walked ; and on the same day was the Sabbath." 

No statement could be more clear than this. Here 
was a pool, where an angel went down at a certain 
season and troubled the water ; then the first one who 
stepped into the pool after the water was troubled, 
was made whole. Thus it appears that one was 
healed every year ; but as the sick rushed there by 
hundreds to be healed, and only one could be healed, 
at the annual troubling of the waters, the multitudes 
of sick and impotent folks increased until, John says, 



EVIDENCE OF THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALISM. 47 

there was a great multitude. Jesus, in looking over 
this " great multitude," found one, only one, of the 
great number that his clairvoyant perceptions told 
him he could heal, and, after the conversation above 
related, healed the one, and left all the rest to die 
there, or be healed at the slow rate of one, " at a cer- 
tain season." This multitude increasing every day, 
rendered the chances of being healed at the pool 
hardly worth staying for. 

I have, in my own experience as a healer, met par- 
allel cases. Probably one case in a hundred of sick 
people that I see impresses me with an almost irre- 
sistible impulse to heal them, and in such cases I sel- 
dom fail. On the other hand, any medium will occa- 
sionally get the opposite feeling. In such cases, all 
the efforts of that medium will prove ineffectual. 
This was probably the case with Jesus, and will 
account for his healing one case, and going away and 
leaving so many sick folks at the pool of Siloam. 

The day of Pentecost is by Christians referred to 
with great confidence as being especially prolific of 
evidences of the divinity of Christianity ; and I must 
confess I know of no chapter in the Bible better cal- 
culated to portray the benefit arising from phenomenal 
Christianity. The works done on the day of Pente- 
cost can be enumerated as follows : — 

1. The falling upon the disciples or mediums of a 
spiritual influence, called the Holy Ghost. 

2. The speaking of different languages by the aid 
of spirit power. 

3. Peter preaching under spirit influence ; and, 

4. Soon after the Pentecost, and during the revival 
that then commenced, the healing of a cripple. 



48 THE CONTRAST. 

No one claims that any other evidence of the divin- 
ity of the Christian system than the four points men- 
tioned can be drawn out of this revival. Now, can 
ten thousand witnesses be believed, when they declare, 
upon their sacred honor, that they have, at different 
times, witnessed all of these phenomena in modern 
Spiritualism. Do these tilings prove the divinity of 
Christianity ? If so, permit them to do as much for that 
which now produces them. But I must argue more 
than is embraced in the proposition that the argu- 
ments used, in defense of Christianity apply with all 
their force to modern Spiritualism. Let me state, as 
a second proposition, that 

EVERY ARGUMENT URGED AGAINST SPIRITUALISM 
APPLIES WITH ALL ITS FORCE AGAINST THE 
BIBLE. 

I shall not now thoroughly argue every point that 
could be discussed under the above heading, as many 
of the points must come up in other divisions of this 
book. The reply to the oft-repeated arguments on 
the immoralities of Spiritualism, will be made in a 
chapter devoted to the comparative moral tendencies 
of the two systems. 

It is sometimes said that Spiritualism has in it a 
great deal that is ridiculous and silly. I do not know 
but this is true : I am inclined to think there are 
some incongruities and absurdities in it. There are 
fools in this world, and there may be in the other. I 
notice fools sometimes pass over the river of death. 
Solomon says, " Though thou shouldest bray a fool in 
the mortar among wheat, with a pestle, yet will not his 
foolishness depart from him." I presume that even 



EVIDENCE OF THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALISM. 49 

the mortar and pestle of death have failed to pulver- 
ize the folly of some who have passed through that 
ordeal. 

But is there nothing silly or absurd in the Bible ? 
Is there anything in Spiritualism more silly than the 
angel's tete-a-tete with Moses at the country tavern 
when he tried to kill him ? (Ex. iv. 24, 25.) Did 
the reader ever notice the tedious and silly way that 
Gideon took to talk with his God ? (Judges vi. 36-40.) 
What could be more silly than the manner in which 
God told Gideon to test his army ? (Judges vii. 4.) 
If a spirit were to say, " I will hiss for the fly of 
Egypt," or, "I will shave with a razor that is hired " ? 
(See Isa. vii. 18, 20), would not the opposers find in 
that all the evidence they could wish that Spiritualism 
was disgustingly silly ? Yet, when the Bible repre- 
sents God as doing these things, I would be called 
sacrilegious if I were to deny them. Were a medium 
to record that a spirit wrestled with him all night, and 
finally threw him down and broke his thigh, he would 
be laughed at by every Christian in the land. But 
let one dare to make sport of the wrestling-match be- 
tween God and Jacob, and he does it at the risk of 
religious and social ostracism. (See Gen. xxiv. 30.) 

There are not so many now as in former times who 
deny spirit manifestations. The age for that is about 
past. If it were not, I would ask by what rule the 
wonderful stories in the Bible can be believed, and 
stories now just like them, only not half so large, es- 
tablished by ten times the amount of testimony, must 
be rejected ? To illustrate : Christians find no trouble 
in believing that Jesus came to the disciples after his 
4 



50 THE COKTKAST. 

anastasis and ate fish and honeycomb ; but when I 
tell the same persons, who find it no stretch of their 
credulity to believe this story, that I can prove by a 
hundred good witnesses, some of them not Spiritual- 
ists, that spirits came into Mrs. Kegwin's circles in 
Jeffersonville, Ind., and ate apples in the presence of 
the whole circle, they are ready to swear that I and 
my witnesses are imposing on their credulity. Now, 
though this statement is true, I do not ask Bible be- 
lievers to receive it ; I only ask them to be consistent, 
and reject the story of the spirits eating the calf, and 
Jesus eating after his death. (See Gen. xviii. 8 ; Luke 
xxiv. 30, 43, 44 ; Acts x. 41.) 

The objection that Spiritualism comes from the 
devil, was made with equal vehemence and truthful- 
ness against John and Jesus. (Matt. xi. 18; xii. 24; 
John yii. 20 ; viii. 48.) 

The objection against darkness being one of the 
conditions for certain of the manifestations of spirit 
power, would weigh against many portions of the Bible. 
That book declares that "God dwells in the midst 
of thick darkness." (1 Kings viii. 12.) God's wrestle 
with Jacob was in the dark. As soon as it began to 
get light God could do nothing more — - could not even 
get away from Jacob, and began to devoutly pray for 
Jacob to let him go, " for the day breaketh." (Gen. 
xxxii. 24.) The pulling of the linchpins out of Pha- 
raoh's chariot-wheels was done in the dark. So the 
resurrection of Jesus was a work of darkness. It was 
night when the walls of Jericho fell, and in fact almost 
every biblical wonder transpired in the dark. 

I will now offer another proposition, viz. : — 



EVIDENCE OF THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALISM. 51 



THE EVIDENCES OF THE TBUTH OF THE BIBLE ARE 
NOT SO CONCLUSIVE AS THOSE OF MODERN SPIRIT- 
UALISM. 

No one will dispute that the evidences of the authen- 
ticity, genuineness, and integrity of the Bible is second- 
hand evidence. If ever there was first-class evidence 
of the teachings, it has not reached us. But even if 
this was not true, if we had the privilege of consult- 
ing the original witnesses, they were not such wit- 
nesses as would now be taken ^as the best evidence 
of such manifestations as they record. The people 
among whom the prophets, Jesus, and the apostles did 
their wonders, were not educated as the multitudes 
now are. Not one in one thousand of them could 
read, much less had they a scientific education. Many 
of the now very simple phenomena were to them 
entirely un explainable, and hence miraculous. The 
prophets, Jesus, and the apostles never had the good 
fortune to have to do any wonders among any people 
that were in advance of the Cheyennes or Camanches 
of to-day. When they became civilized enough to 
want to build a perpetual residence for their God (1 
Kings viii. 12, 13), they were compelled to send to a 
heathen king for skilled workmen. They had not 
one among all their workmen capable of doing the 
work. (1 Kings v. 6.) 

Now think of the biblical wonders being wrought 
among these ignoramuses, then think of the stories 
passing from mouth to mouth, and the verbal inaccu- 
racies necessarily attending such stories, and that they 
are only preserved by these hearsay reports, and I 
think all will see the necessity of making calculations 



52 THE CONTRAST. 

for their growth. Now, reader, please add to the 
above considerations the fact that there were no Argus- 
eyed reporters on the spot to criticise and ridicule the 
manifestations ; no interviewers to interview either 
the miracle-workers or those who beheld them, and 
the chances for deception become so great and numer- 
ous that the stories must be received with allowance. 

No one, I think, will fail to recognize that while the 
above is true of all the Bible wonders, it is not true 
of modern spirit manifestations. They are wrought 
among the literati of the age. Many of them are re- 
corded on the spot by eye-witnesses ; reporters and 
interviewers are frequently on the arena ; every mis- 
take is recorded and heralded by the daily press. 
Rigid scientific and theologic tests are applied, 
and every precaution to prevent deception. Those 
witnessing the phenomena are brought into court, and 
compelled to tell their stories under the pains and 
penalties of perjury. Thus the truth, the whole truth, 
and nothing but the truth, is elicited in the presence 
of those who have witnesses on the ground, and have 
laid every snare to entrap the witness of these won- 
ders. Astute lawyers -are well paid for exhausting 
their skill in examining and cross-examining witnesses, 
all to no purpose, save to deepen the general convic- 
tion that the manifestations said to have a spiritual 
origin do occur. 

But should I withdraw the foregoing argument, 
and admit that the witnesses of the manifestations 
occurring in the presence of Jesus and the apostles 
were in every instance good, educated, honorable wit- 
nesses, still your testimonjr for biblical manifestations 
is not so good as ours for those occurring in the 



EVIDENCE OF THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALISM. 53 

present century. Biblical testimonies have been trans- 
lated too often, and passed through too many hands. 
No one can know now whether it was true or not. 
Aside from the corroboration of modern facts, the evi- 
dences that they ever occurred have passed through 
entirely too many hands, and been tinkered too often. 
It would be impossible now to know their truth. 

On this subject Lardner, the great Christian author, 
in his Cred. Gos. Hist., vol. iv. p. 524, quotes Casau- 
bon, as follows : — 

" It mightily affects me to see how many there are 
in the earliest times of the church who considered it 
a capital exploit to lend heavenly truth the help of 
their inventions, in order that the new doctrines might 
be more readily allowed by the wise among the Gen- 
tiles. These officious lies, they were wont to say, 
were devised for a good end." 

Hundreds of other Christian authors have freely 
spoken on the same subject. Selmer shows the 
chances for deception with regard to facts in the case. 
He says, — 

" The Christian doctors never brought their sacred 
books before the common people, although people in 
general have been wont to think otherwise. Dur- 
ing the first ages they were in the hands of the clergy 
only." 

The tendency of good Christian people to lie for the 
glory of God, and sometimes manufacture whole sto- 
ries, may be learned from the following from Bishop 
Heliodorus : " A falsehood is a good thing when it 
aids the speaker and does no injury to the hear- 
ers." 

Other Christian writers strengthen our faith iii the 



54 THE CONTRAST. 

records they have handed us, in the following man- 
ner : — 

Bishop Marsh says, "It is a certain fact, that 
several readings of our common printed text are mere 
alterations made by Origen, whose authority was so 
great in the Christian church, that emendations which 
he proposed, though, as he himself acknowledged, 
they were supported by the evidence of no manu- 
script, were very generally received." And Origen 
himself, speaking of the gospels, says, " There are 
things contained therein, which, taken in their literal 
sense, are mere falsities and lies." — Horn. 6, in Isaiah, 
fol. 107, D. 

Origen admits, says Du Pin, that " there is a great 
discrepancy between the copies, which must be attrib- 
uted either to the negligence of the scribes, or to the 
audacious perversions of others, or to those who cor- 
rect the text by arbitrary additions or omissions, who 
oftentimes have put in and left out as they thought it 
most convenient." 

Gregory Nazianzen says, " A little jargon is all that 
is necessary to impose on the people. The less they 
comprehend, the more they admire ! " 

Not only has the Bible and its history passed 
through a great many hands, and thus been subject to 
the mistakes of transcribers and translators, but it has 
been in bad hands. 

The following testimonies from eminent Christians 
will let the reader somewhat into the light as to how 
far those who have handed us the stories we are ex- 
pected to believe can be trusted : — 

Ignatius (A. D. 107) says, "Now the virginity of 
Mary, and he who was born of her, was kept in secret 



EVIDENCE OF THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALISM. 55 

from the prince of this world, as was also the death 
of our Lord ; three of the mysteries most spoken of 
throughout the world, yet done in secret by God." 

If this historical fact, stated by an apostolic father, 
can be believed, it is doubtful whether Mary was a 
virgin, or any of the miracles of Jesus were ever 
wrought. 

Bishop Horseley states that Origen "was not in- 
capable of asserting in argument what he believed 
not, and that a strict regard to truth in disputation 
was not one of the virtues of his character." . . . 
" Time was when the practice of using unjustifiable 
means to serve a good cause was openly avowed, and 
Origen himself was among its defenders." 

Eusebius heads the thirty-first chapter of his Evan- 
gelical Preparation, with the following query : — 

" How far may it be proper to use falsehood as a 
medicine, and for the benefit of those who require to 
be deceived." In another place he takes occasion to 
laud himself thus : "I have related whatever might 
redound to the glory, and I have suppressed all that 
could tend to the disgrace, of our religion." 

Mosheim (vol. i. p. 120) says, " The authors who 
have treated of the innocence and' sanctity of the 
primitive Christians, have fallen into the error of sup- 
posing them to have been unspotted models of piety 
and virtue, and a gross error indeed it is, as the strong- 
est testimonies too evidently prove." 

On p. 198, vol. i., he says, " In the fourth century 
it was an almost universally adopted maxim, that it 
was an act of virtue to deceive and he, when, by such 
means, the interests of the church might be pro- 
moted." 



56 THE CONTRAST. 

Dr. Whitby says, Papias and Irseneus have " handed 
down the actions of the apostles and their disciples 
from paltry rumors and dubious reports, and as having 
scandalously deluded the world with fables and lying 
narrations." — Be Script. Interpreted, p. 73. 

St. Hermas exclaims, " O Lord, I never spake a 
true word in my life ; but I have always lived in dis- 
simulation, and affirmed a lie for truth to all men, and 
no man contradicted me." 

Daille, on the use of the fathers, says, " Neither 
ought we to wonder that even those of the honest, 
innocent, primitive times made use of those deceits, 
saying for a good end they made no scruples of for- 
ging whole books." 

He quotes Celsus as saying, " They altered the 
Gospels three or four different times, as if they were 
drunk, and when pressed by their adversaries, re- 
curred to that reading which best suited their pur- 
pose ! " 

St. Jerome says, " I do not find fault with an error 
which proceeds from hatred towards the Jews, and a 
pious zeal for the Christian faith." — Oper., torn. 4, 
p. 113. 

Michaelis, in the Preface to his Translations, says, 
" No one will deny that the early Christians who dif- 
fered from the ruling church, have altered the New 
Testament in numerous examples, according to their 
peculiar tenets." " And, so much so," says the Rev. 
Mr. Nolan, in his Inquiry, p. 460, " that little con- 
fidence could be placed in any edition." 

Du Pin says, " It cannot be said that no fault has 
crept into the Scriptures by the negligence or inad- 
vertency of the transcribers, or even by the boldness 



EVIDENCE OF THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALISM. 57 

of those who have ventured to strike out, add, or 
change some words which they thought necessary to 
be omitted, added, or changed." 

St. Synesius says, " The people are desirous of 
being deceived. We can not act otherwise respecting 
them." 

With all this array of testimony as to the character 
of the fathers in the church, — those to whom we are 
indebted for the Bible and all its contents, — who can 
do otherwise than doubt whether the big stories in 
the book may not have been put in there by those 
who esteemed it " a virtue to lie and deceive, when 
by it the cause of the church can be advanced." 

THE INTERNAL EVIDENCES OF. THE BIBLE NOT GOOD. 

If appeal be made from the departments of the sub- 
jects already presented to the internal testimonies of 
the truth of the Bible and the divinity of its teach- 
ings, I must answer, Your witness testifies against 
you. The subject of the purity of biblical teach- 
ings, as compared with Spiritualism, will come up in 
another chapter. Now I only inquire after the his- 
torical truth of some of its statements. 

Gen. xiv. 14, says, "And when Abram heard .that 
his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained 
servants, born in his own house, three hundred and 
eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan." Does any 
one believe this ? What would you think of the his- 
torian who would tell you that Alexander the Great 
pursued his enemies even unto Washington ? Would 
you not call that an anachronism ? The truth is, the 
city of Dan had no existence for more than four cen- 
turies, after Abraham was "asleep with his fathers." 



58 THE CONTRAST. 

In Judges xviii. 28, 29, the historian records, that, 
" They [the children of Dan] built a city and dwelt 
therein. And they called the name of the city Dan, 
after the name of Dan, their father, who was born 
unto Israel ; howbeit, the name of the city was Laish 
at the first." Dan was the great grandson of Abra- 
ham; it was Dan's great-great grandchildren that 
built the city and named it after him. Will the one 
who thinks the Bible all true and Spiritualism all 
false, tell us how Abraham chased his enemies to Dan 
so long before the great grandfather of those who 
built it was born? 

The contradictory stories concerning Ahaziah's age, 
one recorded in 2 Kings viii. 6, the other in 2 Chron. 
xxii. 2, can not both be correct. It is not probable that 
either of them is true. They both make Ahaziah the 
youngest son of Jehoram. The statement in the Book 
of Kings would make Ahaziah only eighteen years 
younger than his father, which was not at all prob- 
able. The Book of Chronicles makes him two years 
older than his father, which was impossible. 

As an instance of the unreliability of portions of 
the book which we are asked to credit rather than 
modern Spiritualism, I will refer the reader to the 
quail story, found in Num. xi. 31 : " And there w^ent 
forth a wind from the Lord, and brought quails from 
the sea., and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day's 
journey on this side, and as it were a day's journey 
on the other side, round about the camp, and as it 
were two cubits high upon the face of the earth." 

According to this story the pile of quails must have 
been forty-four inches high and sixty-six miles in 
diameter. The story is too large. The story of 



EVIDENCE OF THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALISM. 59 

Samson slaying a thousand men with a jawbone 
of an ass, is too large. (See Judges xv. 15.) Men 
do not voluntarily walk up to be slaughtered in that 
way. Should they become insane enough to do so, 
the weapon Samson used is not sufficient. The sec- 
ond part of the story about the jawbone becoming 
the source of a stream of water is worse than the 
first, — it beats Jack the Giant-Killer, or Sindbad 
the Sailor. I really wish Samson had picked up 
the jawbone and thrown it into the stream that ran 
out of the hollow place in it. He might have im- 
parted information as to whether it would sink or 
swim ! 

The story of Samson and his three hundred foxes 
with burning tails destroying thousands of acres of 
green corn (Judges, xv. 3, 5), represents Samson as 
being a more than ordinarily good fox-hunter, so 
much so that now it is generally considered a fit com- 
panion of Gulliver's Travels. 

Without referring the reader to other portions of 
the Old and New Testaments, proving the unreliabil- 
ity of their contents, I submit another proposition, 
viz. : — 

A DESTRUCTION OF THE EVIDENCES OF SPIRITUAL- 
ISM WOULD DESTROY THE BIBLE. 

In another proposition I argued that any argument 
used against modern Spiritualism would weigh with 
all its force against the Bible ; but in this proposition 
I mean more than I did in that. 

Can the dead, or can they not, return? If I am 
answered that they can return, then the foundation 
of modern Spiritualism is admitted. If they can not 



60 THE CONTRAST. 

return, then the Bible is not true, for it says Samuel 
did come back and talk to Saul. (1 Sam. xxviii. 21.) 
Elijah did give a communication to the king Jehoram, 
and that in his own handwriting. (2 Chron. xxi. 12.) 
He did come back, using John the Baptist as a medi- 
um. (Luke i. 17.) Moses and Elias did come to 
Jesus on the mount of transfiguration (Matt. xvii. 
1-9), and seven spirits, one of them John's own 
brother, came to him on the Island of Patmos. (Rev. 
xxi. 10-12; ii. 8.) 

I now ask, Are these things true ? If they are, 
Spiritualism is true ; if not, the Bible is false. Take 
the case of Samuel to illustrate the argument. Did 
he come back? If so, he has proved there is a means 
of communication between the two worlds ; since, if 
there had not been, he could not have come back. If, 
on the other hand, he did not come back, then the 
Bible, which says he did, relates a falsehood, and its 
veracity is destroyed by its indorsement of Spirit- 
ualism. 

Once more I ask, Will you believe me, and dozens 
of other witnesses, when we say we have seen spirit 
hands formed, and take a pencil and write on a slate, 
— often in exactly the hand they wrote when in 
earth life? If not, how can you believe the Bible 
when it says, "In the same hour came forth fin- 
gers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the 
candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's 
palace : and the king saw the part of the hand that 
wrote. Then the king's countenance was changed, 
and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of 
his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against 
another." (Dan. v. 5, 6.) 



EVIDENCE OF THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALISM. 61 



LIVING WITNESSES. 

One great advantage Spiritualism has over the mar- 
vellous stories related in the Bible is, that Spiritual- 
ists are not compelled to look through the musty 
histories of many hundreds of years standing for evi- 
dence of its truth. Provided that the spiritual stories 
and Bible stories were all the same, it must be con- 
ceded that the great balance of testimony is in favor 
of Spiritualism. In the case of Spiritualism, the wit- 
nesses are alive, and in the vicinity of every reader of 
this volume. There is not one who reads this book 
who could not, in twenty-four hours' time, get the 
sworn testimony of witnesses enough to prove any 
point that can be proved by testimony. He can cross- 
examine the witnesses, and look into the chances for 
deception, ad libitum. Not so with biblical wonders : 
they may, or they may not, have occurred. There 
are no witnesses to-day of the resurrection of Lazarus ; 
no opportunity is offered to detect fraud and trickery. 
Nothing is known of the names, much less of the 
moral character or intellectual attainments, of those 
who testified in this case, if, indeed, there were any to 
bear testimony. One case will fully illustrate my 
meaning. It is said that the walls of Jericho fell down 
when the children of Israel marched around them. 
Now imagine how a conversation would run between 
a Spiritualist and a Christian on the subject. Let the 
Spiritualist commence by asking the question, Do 
you believe the story of the falling of the walls of 
Jericho at the time of the great march of the children 
of Israel around them ? 

Christian. Certainly I do ; it is in the Bible ; why 
should I not believe it ? 



62 THE CONTRAST. 

Spir. Knowing that Christians are some of them 
very doubtful of wonderful manifestations, w-hen 
backed by what seems to me very conclusive evi- 
dence, I did not know but that you even doubted this 
story. Since you inform me that you believe the rec- 
ord of this wonderful manifestation, will you be kind 
enough to tell me why you believe it ? 

Chris. Because it is in the Bible ; what more is 
needed ? 

Spir. When did this wonderful story find its way 
into the Bible ? 

Chris. I do not know. 

Spir. What was the moral and intellectual charac- 
ter of the writer ? 

Chris. I can't say; I guess it must have been 
good. 

Spir. Who was he ? What was his name ? 

Chris. I do not know as the name of the author 
is given. In fact, I know that scholars do not pretend 
to know who wrote the narrative. 

Spir. Do you know of any corroborative history in 
the world? 

Chris. Not any. 

Spir. Then why do you believe the story ? 

Chris. Because it is in the Bible. 

Spir. I will tell you why I think it possible the 
story may be true. I have seen tables shaken and 
moved by spirit power alone, when no visible power 
touched them. Spirits that can shake tables may 
have shaken prison doors open, or the walls of Jericho 
down. 

Chris. Don't talk to me about spirits shaking tables. 
I can't believe such big stories. 



EVIDENCE OF THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALISM. 63 

Thus you see, dear reader, what a strange admix- 
ture there must be in that organism which believes all 
the Bible and yet rejects modern Spiritualism, estab- 
lished by ten thousand times the amount of evidence. 

Consistency is a rare jewel; let us always try to 
keep a good stock of it on hand. 

4 'What is the Past, with its psalms and prayers? 

And what are its crude beliefs to me ? 
Men never saw, in the Present of theirs, 

What is denied for the Now to see ! 
The years that are gone are as stranger men 
We passed, but shall never pass again. 

"Mine is the Present, now, this hour ; 

Shall I be the dupe of a dupe of yore ? 
And see a revealment of heavenly power 

In the rag of a gaberdine he wore? 
The rag of a web spun long ago, 
Might have covered a fool, for aught I know. 

" And John may have dreamed, away down East, 
In the Isle of Patmos — God knows where ; — 
But what to me is his horned beast, 

His thrones, and his mammoth angel there? 
The dream of John to my spirit means 
Nothing more strange than another's dreams. 

" And Christ may have suffered upon the tree, 
And died for the sins of those who stood 
To see him die. But he's naught more to me 
Than are other men who suffered for good. 
Their blood — as his — by the hand of power 
Was shed for the faith of the living hour." 



64 THE CONTRAST. 



CHAPTER III. 

TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALISM. 

The Boast of Christians. — Age of the Bible no Argument in its favor. — A 
few knotty Questions. — Author does not dispute the Designs of Christianity. 

— Testimonies of Christians on the failure of Christianity. — Christians ac- 
cuse each other. — Paul in a Dilemma. — His Plan of Escape. — Confessions 
of modern Christians. — Jesus' Parables leading in the wrong Direction. — 
The prodigal Son. — The unjust Steward. — Jesus commends the Scoundrel. 

— The unjust Judge.— Reasons for prayer. — The Laborers in the Vineyard. 

— Does God play the same Game. — Bad Precepts. — Borrowing of the Egyp- 
tians. — Children of Israel not Slaves in Egypt. — What to do with bad Meat. 

— Punishment for religious Differences. — Treatment of bad Boys. — The 
Bible on Slavery. — On the treatment of Slaves. — The war upon the Midian- 
ites. — Biblical Temperance. — Sketches from Jesus' Sermon. — Jesus a dis- 
turber of domestic Relations. — A cool Reception. — Immoral Doctrines. — 
Works of no avail. — Character of the biblical God. — The Difference. — The 
modus operandi of Salvation. — Proper Generation vs. Regeneration. — Re- 
cipe for making Hogs of Children. — How to cure Depravity. — Rest when 
Nature rests ; work when she works. — North and South ends of People. — 
Ten syllogistic Arguments. — Conclusion. 

By the time the argument on Spiritualism and the 
Bible has reached the crisis to which the last chapter 
brought it, the advocates of the Bible as opposed to 
Spiritualism begin to get their fears terribly aroused, 
least Spiritualism should lead people away from the 
high moral, mental, and spiritual bearing to which the 
teachings and practice of those who made, and those 
who now regard the Bible as the " Book of books," 
has elevated them. The boast of the Christian world 
is, that in the Bible as a book, and in the history of the 
characters who vouchsafed it to us, we have the high- 
est possible type of moral, mental, and spiritual puri- 



TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE AKD SPIRITUALISM. 65 

ty. The Bible is nothing else than God's own book, 
and therefore perfect. The moral lessons taught in it 
are so perfect that by no possibility could they be im- 
proved, and the character of its heroes, commonly 
called saints, are worthy to be held up as an example 
for all coming generations. In this connection of eu- 
logizing the Bible and its Moguls, its advocates gener- 
ally say, " There is no kind of use in attacking the 
Bible now, it has stood too long. Marcion, Porphyry, 
and Julian made an attack on it ; Gibbon, Hume, 
Voltaire, and Paine undertook to put it down, but 
after nineteen hundred years of warfare it stands yet, 
a monument of strength against which it is foolish to 
battle." 

This is in part true. Christianity stands to-day, 
but I am led to ask, cut bono? The Christian has 
one argument in favor of his system, that is, its age. 
Catholicism is old : is it therefore divine ? How about 
Mohammedanism ? Paganism is older yet than Chris- 
tianity, and still it stands against the attacks of Chris- 
tian missionaries ; let us argue its divinity from its 
age. Sin is older than any religion ; religions have 
tried in vain to crush it out, still it stands an impreg- 
nable bulwark. Shall we therefore plead with Chris- 
tianity to cease its warfare upon sin ? 

Now that I have been frank enough to admit the 
fact that Christianity is old, how will the advocates 
of the system make that an argument in its favor ? 
The question is not one of age, but what has it clone 
for the world ? How has the world been benefited 
by tolerating the institution so long ? Has it made 
the world better ? Has it redeemed humanity ? Has 
it caused its own adherents to beat their swords into 
5 



66 THE CONTRAST. 

ploughshares and their spears into pruning-hooks, and 
do they learn war no more ? Are the lives of even 
those who profess to enjoy the blessings of Christian- 
ity, who practice its virtues, models of perfection and 
purity ? Are Christians to-day, or have they ever been, 
governed by the golden rule, any more than those 
whom it denominates' infidels? Nay, do not Chris- 
tians themselves confess that the world has steadily 
increased in wickedness under its administration? 
Whether true or not, evangelical ministers, books, and 
papers to-day tell the people there never was so 
much wickedness in the world as at the present time. 
How is it that sin increases in proportion as a knowl- 
edge of Christianity and its Bible abounds ? By and 
by I shall have a few words in answer to this ques- 
tion. I now suggest that nearly nineteen hundred 
years of failure is enough to show that there is some- 
thing radically wrong in the system. I am led to 
think that if Christianity is to save the world at all, it 
is time it was about it. Let us have a change of phy- 
sicians. 

I have not the slightest doubt of the desire on the 
part of many good Christians to benefit the world, but 
good desires are not enough. With all their desires, 
their love of approbation, and the pride of their sys- 
tem, Christians have not even been able to keep 
themselves morally pure. Let us, writer and readers, 
now, not as theorizers or fault-finders, but as honest 
men in search of the truth, see why Christianity has 
failed, and see whether there is anything else that 
will do what it has failed to accomplish. That Chris- 
tians themselves regard that their system has thus 
far failed in its work is evident. The following ex- 
tracts are all from Christian authorities : — 



TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALISM. 67 

Elder M. E. Cornell says, " It is not with any desire 
to find fault, or, like the wordling, to dwell upon the 
imperfections of others, and make their backslidings 
an excuse for laxity, that we speak of the fallen con- 
dition of the churches, for we do it with sadness, and 
would God it were otherwise. The facts are so well 
known to keen-eyed skeptics, infidels, and the world 
at large, that if we refuse to acknowledge them it 
would indicate a want of honesty on our part. But 
wdiile infidels rejoice over the matter, and make it an 
occasion of doubting and rejecting the Bible and the 
Christian religion, we note the facts with candor, and 
see in it a fulfillment of prophecy. Instead of an oc- 
casion of stumbling, we find it an occasion of stronger 
faith in the Bible, as of heavenly origin. But while 
we speak freely on the subject, we need not appear 
before the world as confessing for the churches, as 
though they were unwilling to acknowledge the facts ; 
for this they have fully done for themselves, as will 
appear from the copious extracts in the following 
pages. Let not the unbeliever rejoice over the fallen 
state of the church, for it is an omen of no good to the 
world. If the truth has lost its power upon its pro- 
fessed friends, what can its enemies hope for? " 

Alexander Campbell says, " The worshiping es- 
tablishments now in operation throughout Christen- 
dom, increased and cemented by their respective 
voluminous confessions of faith, and their ecclesiasti- 
cal constitutions, are not churches of Jesus Christ, but 
the legitimate daughters of that mother of harlots, the 
Church of Rome." 

Lorenzo Dow says of the Romish Church, " If she 
be a mother, who are the daughters ? It must be the 



68 THE CONTRAST. 

corrupt, national, established churches that came out 
of hex." — Dow 9 s Life, p. 542. 

In the Religious Encyclopedia (art. Antichrist), we 
read, " The writer of the Book of Revelation tells us 
he heard a voice from heaven, saying, ' Come out of 
her, my people, that ye partake not of her sins, and 
receive not of her plagues. 5 If such persons are to be 
found in the 6 mother of harlots,' with much less hesi- 
tation may it be inferred that they are connected with 
her unchaste daughters, those national churches which 
are founded upon what are called Protestant prin- 
ciples" 

Robert Atkins, in a sermon preached in London, 
says, " The truly righteous are diminished from the 
earth, and no man layeth it to heart. The professors 
of religion of the present day in every church are 
lovers of the world, conformers to the world, lovers 
of creature-comfort, and aspirers after respectability. 
They are called to suffer with Christ, but they shrink 
from even reproach. Apostasy, apostasy, apostasy, is 
engraven on the very front of every church ; and did 
they know it, and did they feel it, there might be 
hope ; but, alas ! they cry, 4 We are rich, and in- 
creased in goods, and stand in need of nothing.' " 

The report of the Michigan Yearly Conference, 
published in the True Wesleyan of November 15, 1851, 
says, " The world, commercial, political, and ecclesi- 
astical, are alike, and are together going in the broad 
way that leads to death. Politics, commerce, and 
nominal religion, all connive at sin, reciprocally aid 
each other, and unite to crush the poor. Falsehood 
is unblushingly uttered in the forum and in the pulpit, 
and sins that would shock the moral sensibilities of 



TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALISM. 69 

the heathen go unrebuked in all the great denomina- 
tions of our land." These churches are like the Jew- 
ish church when the Saviour exclaimed, "Wo unto 
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites." 

Henry Ward Beecher says, " All the framework 
of society seems to be dissolving. On every side we 
find men false to the most important trusts. Even 
the judges on the bench are bought and sold like 
meat in the shambles. One must go into court with 
a long purse to obtain justice. The judiciary of New 
York stinks like Sodom and Gomorrah. Men say 
they hardly know a court in which to trust a case. 
It is no longer an honor to sit on the bench, for if the 
judge be an upright man his character will be con- 
taminated by the great majority of his associates." 

Says the New York Tribune, " The telegraph wires 
bend under their weight of woe ; the old earth quivers 
with throbs of agony from the center to the pole ; 
cities are shaken down, countries are ingulfed, fair 
domains are overflowed with red-hot lava; wife is 
arrayed against husband, mother against child, son 
against father ; a hecatomb is sacrificed on one rail- 
way, half as many on another, and on still another 
the width of a hair stands between a thousand and 
sudden death. In social life, our newspapers are 
smutched all over with reports of divorce and separa- 
tion trials, of infidelity and disgrace, of gigantic crimes 
undertaken, half accomplished, or completed. What 
shall be the end of these things ? " 

The Christian Inquirer says, " Such an intense 
and insane rush and struggle for wealth, such reck- 
less, ruinous, extravagance of expenditure, such a de- 
lirium for vulgar display, this country has never seen. 



70 THE CONTRAST. 

And, alas! not only taste, refinement, purity, and 
piety have gone down before the tide, but even hon-* 
esty, &c. . . . Every vice has increased in an alarm- 
ing degree. Intemperance — not only are our streets 
and public places full of it, not only do young men 
and old men and mere boys fall before it by scores and 
hundreds, but even women, beautiful, accomplished, 
beloved wives and daughters carry its fire-blush on 
their cheeks, and reel and totter under its influence 
on the sidewalks. There are more gaming places in 
the city to-day than there were dry goods stores 
twenty years ago ; and the gamblers include all classes, 
from the boy of fifteen to the roue of fifty. But why 
enumerate? Every vice on the black catalogue of 
transgression has more than doubled in volume and in 
victims within these five years, and our j^outh, the 
pride and hope of our land, are falling beneath the 
subtle destroyer faster than ever they fell in Southern 
campaign." 

A writer in the New York Tribune, speaking of the 
fashionable religion and worship of this boasted age 
of progress, says, "Now the worshipers one after 
another glide in, silks rattle, plumes wave, satins 
glisten, diamonds glitter, and scores of forty-dollar 
handkerchiefs shake out their perfumed odors ! What 
absurdity to preach the gospel of the lowly Nazarite 
to such a set ! The clergyman knows better than to 
do so. He values his fat salary and handsome parson- 
age too highly. So with a velvety tread he walks all 
around the ten commandments — places the downiest 
pillow under the dying profligate's head, and ushers 
him with seraphic hymning into an upper-ten Hea- 
ven." 



TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALISM. 71 

A Christian poet, in a long lamentation on the 
departure of piety and religion from the church, 
says, — 

" Her pastors love to live at ease ; 

They covet wealth and honor; 
And while they seek such things as these, 

They bring reproach upon her. 
Such worthless objects they pursue, 

Warmly and undiverted, 
The church they lead and ruin, too — 

Her glory is departed. 

From these extracts, and hundreds of similar ones 
which I have at command, the reader can not help but 
see that Christians themselves have written their sys- 
tem down a failure. Like the ancient prophets, who 
had no confidence in each other's predictions, they 
spend their time in accusing each other, as we have 
noted in the foregoing extracts. Those who have 
been accustomed to attend love-feasts, conferences, or 
even to hear Christians pray, can not fail to have noted 
that in all these they have confessed enough to have 
sent them to the state's prison. Christians are always 
confessing their pr oneness to sin, " as the sparks are 
to fly upward." Many of my readers will remember, 
that, in a former volume,* I turned to the Bible, and 
exhibited a chapter of the short-comings of its grandest 
heroes. 

The trouble with the Christian system was, and is, 
it does not know how to make good people of its own 
advocates. Paul has stated the whole matter so clearly 
and truthfully in Rom. vii. 7-25, that his statement 
can neither be refuted, nor its " natural force abated." 
His version of the matter is as follows : — 

* Question Settled, pp. 37 to 39, published by William White 
& Co., Boston. 



72 THE CONTEAST. 

" What shall we say then ? Is the law sin? God 
forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law : 
for I had not known lust, except the law had said, 
Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by 
the commandment, wrought in me all manner of con- 
cupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. For 
I was alive without the law once : but when the com- 
mandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the 
commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to 
be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the com- 
mandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Where- 
fore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and 
just, and good. Was then that which is good made 
death unto me ? God forbid. But sin, that it might 
appear sin, working death in me by that which is 
good : that sin by the commandment might become ex- 
ceeding sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual : 
but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, 
I allow not; for what I would, that do I not; but 
what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I 
would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. 
Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that 
dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in 
my flesh), dwelleth no good thing : for to will is pres- 
ent with me ; but how to perform that which is good 
I find not. For the good that I would I do not : but 
the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do 
that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin 
that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I 
would do good, evil is present with me. For I de- 
light in the law of God after the inward man : But I 
see another law in my members, warring against the 
law of my mind, and bringing me into the captivity to 



TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALISM. 73 

the law of sin which is in my members. wretched 
man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body 
of this death ? I thank God through Jesus Christ our 
Lord. So then with my mind I myself serve the law 
of God ; but with my flesh the law of sin." 

I think it impossible for even the most stupid Chris- 
tian to misapprehend this statement. Paul gives his 
own experience, his daily conflicts. How hard the 
struggles of this gospel "Boanerges!" How weak 
he was when in the power of sin ! All his life, this 
" other law " in his members, bringing him into cap- 
tivity to the law of sin. Poor " chief of sinners ! " All 
the days of his life going around exclaiming, "Who 
shall deliver me from the body of this death ? " This 
apostolic sinner never found a power in the gospel or 
elsewhere strong enough to deliver him. Could any- 
thing more clearly demonstrate the utter insignifi- 
cancy of the Bible and all its plans, so far as saving 
men from the commission of sin is concerned ? The 
only consolation Paul had above sinners who had not 
been Christianized he couched in these words : " There 
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are 
in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but 
after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in 
Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin 
and death." (Rom. viii. 1, 2.) 

Here it is. Paul was in Christ Jesus. Got into him 
by baptism. (Rom. vi. 3.) There is no condemna- 
tion for the sinner who is in Christ. Jesus had paid 
the penalty for his sins ; so, although he was chainefd 
to "the body of this death," the spirit of God dwelt 
in him (Rom. viii. 11), and he was waiting for a pecu- 
liar manifestation which he hoped would put him 



74 THE CONTRAST. 

beyond the necessity of sin. (Verses 19-24.) He, 
however, had In this one consolation ; that is, sin, with 
all its consequences, conld not tear him away from the 
love of God, in Christ Jesns. (Verses 38, 39.) 

Our readers will remember the confession of a pious 
saint, in a previous chapter of this work : " O Lord, 
I never told a truth in my life, but have continually 
affirmed for a truth what I knew to be a lie." The 
confession of modern Christians is, "O Lord, if thou 
hadst dealt justly by us, we might have been with the 
rich man in hell calling for water to cool our parched 
tongues." Thus, in every shape, is the confession 
made, that ,so far as making men and women practi- 
cally good in this world is concerned, Bible religion is 
a failure. 

When it is remembered that the Bible everywhere 
holds up bad examples before its adherents, it could 
not be expected that even good precepts would greatly 
advance its adherents in morality. I do not now re- 
member an example in the Bible held up as a speci- 
men of perfection, but the following of it out would 
convert this world into a worse than Pandemonium. 
Take, as an illustration, the parables given by Jesus; 
there is not one of them that does not, in some way, 
justify the evil and put down the good. In Luke, 
xv. 11-32, is the parable of the Prodigal Son. I 
quote it entire : — 

" And he said, A certain man had two sons: And 
the younger of them said to his father, Father, give 
me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he 
divided unto them his living. And not many days 
after the younger son gathered all together, and took 
his journey into a far country, and there wasted his 



TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE AND SPffilTUALISM. 75 

substance with riotous living. And when he had spent 
all, there arose a mighty famine in the land ; and he 
began to be in want. And he went and joined him- 
self to a citizen of that country ; and he sent him into 
the fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled 
his belly with the husks that the swine did eat : and 
no man gave unto him. And .when he came to him- 
self, he said, How many hired servants of my father's 
have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with 
hunger ! I will arise and go to my father, and will 
say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven 
and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called 
thy son : make me as one of thy hired servants. And 
he arose, and came to his father. But when he was 
yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had com- 
passion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. 
And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned 
against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more 
worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to 
his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on 
him ; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his 
feet : And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it ; 
and let us eat, and be merry : for this my son was 
dead, and is alive again ; he was lost, and is found. 
And they began to be merry. Now his elder son was 
in the field : and as he came and drew nigh to the 
house, he heard music and dancing. And he called 
one of the servants, and asked what these things 
meant. And he said unto him, Thy brother is come ; 
and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he 
hath received him safe and sound. And he was angry, 
and would not go in : therefore came his father out, 
and entreated him. And he answering said to his 



76 THE CONTRAST. 

father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither 
transgressed I at any time thy commandment ; and 
yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make 
merry with my friends : but as soon as this thy son 
was come, which hath devoured thy living with har- 
lots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And he 
said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all 
that I have is thine. It was meet that we should 
make merry, and be glad : for this thy brother was 
dead, and is alive again ; and was lost, and is found." 
This parable, whether originally given for that pur- 
pose or not, is read and commented on to show God's 
forgiving disposition, — his willingness to meet the 
sinner half way, and the particular and especial favor 
he shows to the greatest sinners. The father is said 
to represent God, who has been offended by our sins. 
The human family is divided into two classes, — the 
outrageously wicked are represented by the prodigal 
son ; the naturally just and virtuous — " just persons 
that need no repentance" — are represented by the 
older son. Now, this prodigal son takes half of the old 
man's estate and squanders it, then returns to get the 
portion of the estate that justly belongs to his virtu- 
ous and otherwise righteous brother. What is the re- 
sult ? The father meets him while he is " yet a great 
way off," and orders the best robe put on him, his 
person decked with jewelry, the fatted calf to be 
killed, a band of music employed, a supper, dancing, 
and a general good time ensues, and the old man 
never so much as invites his dutiful son to the party, 
or even informs him of the return of his wicked broth- 
er. When the faithful son would know the meaning 
of all this, his only chance is to inquire of a field-hand. 



TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALISM . 77 

He is answered, that his brother has returned, and 
there is a great feast and dancing-party at his father's 
house. Was he not justly indignant? His father, 
notwithstanding all his faithful services, had never so 
much as given him a kid, or even a dish of kid soup ; 
and now all this ado over a profligate brother was an 
outrage, and would be justly resented by any worthy 
young man in the country. 

Bible Christians will agree with me, that the old 
man was unjust to his oldest son. Not one of them 
would follow his example. The claim is, that God 
has a right to thus deal with his children. I deny it. 
Spiritualism denies it, and pronounces it a piece of 
outrageous injustice. This harmonizes with, and was 
undoubtedly gotten up to illustrate the idea, that the 
greater the sinner in this world, the greater the saint 
in the next, — the more one sins here, the more will 
he be forgiven, and consequently the happier one will 
be in the next w r orld. Jesus illustrates this by refer- 
ence to a case who had been a terrible sinner. He 
says, tw Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which 
are many, are forgiven ; for she loved much : but to 
whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he 
said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven."- (Luke vii. 
47.) 

The Parable of the Unjust Steward reads as fol- 
lows : " And he said also unto his disciples, There 
was a certain rich man, who had a steward ; and the 
same was accused unto him that he had wasted his 
goods. And he called him, and said unto him, How 
is it that I hear this of thee ? give an account of thy 
stewardship ; for thou mayest be no longer steward. 
Then the steward said within himself, What shall I 



78 THE CONTRAST. 

do ? for my lord taketh away from me the steward- 
ship : I cannot dig ; to beg I am ashamed. I am re- 
solved what to do, that, when I am put out of the 
stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. 
So he called every one of his lord's debtors unto him, 
and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto 
my lord ? And he said, A hundred measures of oil. 
And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down 
quickly, and write fifty. ■ Then said he to another, 
And how much owest thou ? And he said, A hun- 
dred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take 
thy bill, and write fourscore. And the lord com- 
mended the unjust steward because he had done 
wisely : for the children of this world are in their 
generation wiser than the children of light. And I 
say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mam- 
mon of unrighteousness ; that, when ye fail, they may 
receive you into everlasting habitations." 

These plain declarations need but little, if any, 
comment. The steward was a scoundrel, and finally 
made hosts of friends by cheating his master in settling 
with those who owed him. Then follows one of the 
lessons that Jesus would teach by this parable : " And 
the lord commended the unjust steward because he 
had acted wisely," and then condemns the " children 
of light " for not imitating the example of the knave 
he introduces as a hero. Now follows his advice to 
his disciples : " And I say unto you, make to your- 
selves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that 
when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting 
habitations." (Verse 9.) Could there be a more 
positive command to play the rogue's part than is there 
expressed ? Should such a piece of advice be found 



TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALISM. 79 

in the writings of A. J. Davis or Victoria C. Wood- 
hull, what would be the result ? Every Christian 
paper in the United States would reproduce it, with 
comments to show the immoral tendency of Spiritual- 
ism. How strange ! We will admire, and even rev- 
erence tilings in the Bible, that we could not be in- 
duced to tolerate in a person of this age. 

The Parable of the Unjust Judge reads as follows : 
" And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that 
men ought always to pray, and not to faint ; saying, 
There w^as in a city a judge, which feared not God, 
neither regarded man : and there was a widow in 
that city ; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me 
of mine adversary. And he would not for a while : 
but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear 
not God, nor regard man ; yet because this widow 
troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual 
coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what 
the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge 
his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, 
though he bear long with them ? I tell you that he 
will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the 
Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? 
And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted 
in themselves that they were righteous, and despised 
others/' (Luke xviii. 1-9.) 

In the Orthodox interpretation of this parable 
(which is the only correct one), God is represented 
as being the unjust judge ; those who pray, are rep- 
resented by the widow who teased the judge ? The 
leading idea is, that God, whom we are to follow 
in all things, will not consult justice in answering 
prayers, but will answer without any reference to the 



80 THE CONTRAST. 

right, in order to get rid of the worrying troubles 
caused by the continual praying of his children. If 
God answers prayer at all, the idea is certainly a true 
one. No person ever asked God to do anything for 
him without either implying that God would not do 
his duty by him without his prayers, and hence that 
God is an unjust judge, or that he wants something 
that God could not, in justice, give ; and now he will 
either play the part of a spoiled child, and tease God's 
life out of him, or compel him, by his teasing, to an act 
of injustice. Now, I ask in all candor and sincerity, 
can any interpretation be put on the parable of the 
unjust judge that will allow that the one who origi- 
nated it knew anything of the first principles of jus- 
tice ? The fact is, the only idea contained in the 
parable is, that God will sacrifice justice in answer to 
the prayers of his children. 

Though an instructive lesson might be learned from 
every one of Jesus' parables, I will only occupy space 
with one more. " For the kingdom of heaven is like 
unto a man that is a householder, which went out 
early in the morning to hire laborers into his vine- 
yard. And when he had agreed with the laborers 
for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 
And he went out about the third hour, and saw oth- 
ers standing idle in the market-place, and said unto 
them, Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever 
is right I will give you. And they went their way. 
Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, 
and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he 
went out, and found others standing idle, and saith 
unto them, Why stand ye here all the- day idle? 
They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. 



TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALISM. 81 

He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard ; 
and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive. So 
when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith 
unto his steward, Call the laborers, and give them 
their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. And 
when they came that were hired about the eleventh 
hour, they received every man a penny. But when 
the first came, they supposed that they should have 
received more ; and they likewise received every man 
a penny. And when they had received it, they mur- 
mured against the goodman of the house, saying, 
These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast 
made them equal unto us, which have borne the bur- 
den and heat of the day. But he answered one of 
them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong : didst not 
thou agree with me for a penny ? Take that thine is, 
and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as 
unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will 
with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am 
good? (Matt. xx. 1-15.) 

Now I think any jury, bound upon their honor, 
would decide, if these men who had " borne the bur- 
den and heat of the day," had sued this householder, 
that this was a case of outrageous injustice. It oc- 
curs to me that this man took advantage of these poor 
laborers, who were out of employment, when he hired 
them for a penny a day. Indeed, he virtually con- 
fesses this himself, when he promised others that he 
would pay them " whatsoever was right" for one 
hour's work, and then paid them a penny. If it was 
right to give them a penny for one hour's labor in the 
cool of the day, it certainly was not right to compel 
the others to work full twelve hours, aiid "bear the 
6 



82 THE CONTRAST. 

burden and heat of the day," and then pay them off 
with a penny. No one claims that this is justice be- 
tween man and man. 

The explanation given of this parable is, that it 
illustrates God's goodness in saving sinners on a dying 
bed. God is the householder, the field is the world. 
Men and women are the laborers. The parable is 
given to show that God will give the same reward in 
heaven to the villain who becomes his servant at the 
last hour of his life, as to the one who spends a life- 
time in his service. The explanation does not help the 
matter ; even that is unjust and unfair. God has no 
right to war against the moral interest of his children 
here in any such way. The religion which teaches 
that God would thus deal by his children, not only 
teaches them to imitate this God in this example, in 
their dealings with each other, but holds out induce- 
ments for them to enjoy, what Paul would call, "the 
pleasures of sin, for a season ; " as they will be just as 
happy in heaven by serving God but one hour. Spirit- 
ualism rejects the leading sentiment of each of these 
parables, fully believing that they are calculated to 
lower the standard of morality among the people. 

THE BIBLE ABOUNDS IN PRECEPTS, THE CARRYING 
OUT OF WHICH MUST MORALLY DEGRADE THE 
PEOPLE. 

Beyond all doubt, the Bible has many good maxims, 
axioms, and precepts. If there were none in it that 
tended in any other direction, a moderately good life 
could be lived in harmony with its teachings ; but, 
alas ! too many of its precepts, if obeyed, would ren- 
der the world so much worse than it is, that all would 



TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALISM. 83 

soon demand the abolition of the Bible from respect- 
able society. A historian says, " And the children of 
Israel did according to the word of Moses ; and they 
borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver and jewels 
of gold, and raiment : and the Lord gave the people 
favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent 
unto them such things as they required : and they 
spoiled the Egyptians." (Exod. xii. 35, 36.) 

This " spoiling of the Egyptians," was done in obe- 
dience to a command of God found in Exodus hi. 22, 
aud xi. 2. In answer to the charge that this was a 
piece of flagrant injustice, the defenders of the Bible 
usually urge that the children of Israel were slaves, 
and it was but just that they should have the prop- 
erty they obtained by this " breach of trust," under 
God's command, as a compensation for their labors. 

Much capital has been made out of the slavery of 
the children of Israel in Egj^pt, but, like many other 
arguments of the clergy, it is untrue. In the sense 
that the children of Israel may have been regarded as 
foreigners and not citizens they may have been slaves, 
but beyond that were no more enslaved than are 
the working classes generally. They were freehold- 
ers colonized together, and had their lands, cattle, 
and sheep in the most fertile parts of Egypt. (Gen. 
xlvii. 11, 27 ; Exod. ix. 4-6 ; x. 23, 26 ; xii. 23, 2T, 
32, 38.) 

Deut. xiv. 21, contains the following bad precept ;' 
46 Ye shall not eat of anything that dieth of itself: 
thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is in thy 
gates, that he may eat it ; or thou mayest sell it unto 
an alien. : for thou art a holy people unto the Lord 
thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's 
milk." 



84 THE CONTEAST. 

Is this just ? If that which died of itself was fit to 
eat, then the command not to eat it was wrong ; if it 
was not fit to eat, then it was wrong to sell or give it 
to any one else to eat. The religion of Spiritualism 
could not recognize the justice of anything of the 
kind. 

Deut. xiii. 6-11, reads as follows: " If thy brother^ 
the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or 
the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as 
thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go 
and serve other gods which thou hast not known, 
thou, nor thy fathers ; namely, of the gods of the 
people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or 
far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even 
unto the other end of the earth. Thou shalt not con- 
sent unto him nor hearken unto him ; neither shall 
thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither 
shalt thou conceal him. But thou shalt surely kill 
him : thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to 
death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. 
And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die ; 
because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the 
Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land 
of Egypt, from the house of bondage." 

Here husbands are commanded to kill wives ; broth- 
ers, brothers ; fathers and mothers, their sons and 
daughters, and friends, bosom friends, for a difference 
in religious opinion. Spiritualists urge the utmost 
liberality in religious opinion, and Spiritualism forbids 
any one the right to kill for any purpose whatever, 
much less for a difference of religious faith. The 
truth is, the churches themselves have outgrown 
many things in the Bible. 



TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALISM. 85 

Deut. xxi. 18-21 says, "If a man have a stubborn 
and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of 
his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when 
they have chastened him, will not hearken unto 
them : then shall his father and his mother lay hold 
on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, 
and unto the gate of his place ; and they shall say 
unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn 
and rebellious, he will not obey our voice ; he is a 
glutton and a drunkard. And all the men of his 
city shall stone him with stones, that he die : so shalt 
thou put evil away from among you ; and all Israel 
shall hear, and fear." 

Is this the way to treat a badly organized child, — 
one that did not organize himself, and was no more to 
blame for being " stubborn, rebellious, and a drunk- 
ard," than the sun is for shining, or rain for falling ? 
If there is any blame anywhere, it is with the parents 
who gave him his organism, and the society that 
called out the latent incongruities and failed to de- 
velop the normal action of his organism. Let us 
spare the child, and throw around him more harmoni- 
ous conditions, we may then enable him, in the next 
world, to be 

" * blest with a holier birth 

Than the passions of man allowed him on earth/' 

The command to murder such an unfortunately 
organized child is not good. Spiritualism would bless, 
and not kill this poor, unfortunately organized child. 

In Leviticus xxv. 44-46, is a passage of Scripture 
that has been used with crushing effect bj* the Amer- 
ican slave-monger. It reads as follows : " Both thy 
bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, 



86 THE CONTRAST. 

shall be of the heathen that are round about you ; of 
them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids. More- 
over, of the children of the strangers that do sojourn 
among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their fami- 
lies that are with you, which they begat in your land ; 
and they shall be your possession. And ye shall take 
them as an inheritance for your children after you, to 
inherit them for a possession ; they shall be your 
bondmen forever : but over your brethren, the chil- 
dren of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with 
rigor." 

How many hundreds of times, and with what cursed 
effects, has this precious bit of " God's Holy Word," 
been used in this country, to tighten the chains of 
the " divine institution " of slavery upon the millions 
of innocent victims that were so many years held in 
bondage. I am personally acquainted with hundreds 
of people who were led astray by this very text. 
Thousands of innocent rebels went into the late war 
fully believing that God would miraculously interfere 
in behalf of the " divine institution." Some who 
were conscientiously opposed to slavery, when their 
ministers in the South showed them how clearly the 
Bible taught that they were in the right and aboli- 
tionists in the wrong, yielded their opposition, and 
laid down their lives in behalf of " the sum of all 
villanies." 

Not only did "the Book of books," their moral 
and religious guide, give them the privilege of own- 
ing slaves, but to beat them, and under certain cir- 
cumstances to kill them ; that is to whip them so that 
they would die within a few days. 

Here is the law on that subject. " And if a man 



TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALISM. 87 

smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die 
under his hand, he shall be surely punished. Notwith- 
standing, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be 
punished ; for he is his money." (Exod. xxi. 20, 21.) 

Such texts need no comment, and I offer none. I 
only say, the book that contains them must be an im- 
perfect guide to holiness. 

In Num. xxxi. 17, 18, is a command, which, to 
say the least, is not very elevating in its moral charac- 
ter. It reads as follows : " Now, therefore, kill every 
male among the little ones, and kill every woman that 
hath . . . but all the women children that hath not 
. . . keep alive for yourselves." 

Such language needs no comment. Ministers have 
used a great deal of lung force, and bundles upon bun- 
dles of quills have been used up, to try to convince the 
world that this command is not bad ; but the world is 
not yet convinced. The command is an outrage on 
our sense of justice ; present inspiration can give bet- 
ter ones. 

In Prov. xxxi. 6, 7, Solomon, the wise man, is 
represented as saying, " Give strong drink unto him 
that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be 
of heavy hearts. Let him drink and forget his pov- 
erty, and remember his misery no more." 

How much " strong drink " does it take to enable 
the poor man to forget his poverty ? How much will 
it take to keep him in a condition where he will re- 
member his misery no more ? I have seen poor men 
get rich on twenty-five cents, but to keep so would 
require the investment of a good many dollars. 

The New Testament is a decided improvement on 
the Old, yet it contains many silly, and some abso- 



88 THE COOTBAST. 

lutely wicked commands. In Matt. vi. 25-34, is a 
department of Jesus' great Sermon on the Mount. 
It reads as follows : " Therefore I say unto you, Take 
no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye 
shall drink ; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put 
on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body 
than raiment ? Behold the fowls of the air : for they 
sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns ; 
yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not 
much better than they ? Which of you by taking 
thought can add one cubit unto his stature ? And 
why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the 
lilies of the field, how they grow ; they toil not, 
neither do they spin : and yet I say unto you, that 
even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like 
one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass 
of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast 
into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O 
ye of little faith ? Therefore take no thought, saying, 
What shall we eat, or, what shall we drink? or, 
wherewithal shall we be clothed ? (for after all these 
things do the Gentiles seek) : for your heavenly Fa- 
ther knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his right- 
eousness ; and all these things shall be added unto 
you. Take therefore no thought of the morrow ; for 
the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. 
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." 

What would a minister think of a church that would 
harbor one serious thought of obeying this text ? His 
first conclusion would be, that he would be compelled 
to look somewhere else for his salary. Obedience to 
this text would of course lead to vagrancy, with all its 



TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALISM. 89 

attendant crimes. When men and women, in obedi- 
ence to this text, live as the birds do, without plow- 
ing, sowing, or gathering into barns, the millennium 
will come in the shape of pandemonium. This com- 
mand, if not wicked, is foolish. 

In Matt. x. 34-38, Jesus says, " Think not that I am 
come to send peace on earth ; I came not to send peace, 
but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance 
against his father, and the daughter against her mother, 
and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and 
a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He 
that loveth father and mother more than me is not wor- 
thy of me ; and he that loveth son and daughter more 
than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not 
his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me." 

In these days of spirit manifestations, we hear a 
great deal of talk about Spiritualism breaking up 
families. Professors Mattison, Mahan, et al., thought 
that nothing good could sow the devastation and des- 
olation that grew in the wake of Spiritualism. Can it 
be worse than that which Jesus advertised as his 
work ? The chief' intention of the hero of Christian- 
ity was not to sow peace and harmony in families, but 
its opposite. As Jehovah was a jealous God, and 
would not tolerate the interference of other gods (see 
Exod. xxxiv. 14-16), so Jesus was even jealous of a 
mother's -love for a child, or a husband's love for his 
wife. If a child loved father or mother more than it 
did Jesus, it was unworthy of him. * In Luke xiv. 26, 
the language is stronger than that already quoted. 
There Jesus says, — 

" If any man come to me and hate not his father 
and mother, and wife and children, and brethren and 



90 the contr AST- 

sisters, yea, and his own life also, lie cannot be my dis- 
ciple." 

Now I am led to ask, Can a book teaching such sen- 
timents, in the first sense of the word, be moral? 
Even though we submit to the claim of the clergy, 
and interpret the word hate, as can not honestly be 
done, to mean "love less," is it just to ask me to 
love that wife, who in her youth forsook all for me, 
and has ever since done her whole duty by me, less 
than I love Jesus ; and what of those children which 
are the result of the union of her soul and mine? 
Must I love those whose very existence I am respon- 
sible for less than I love Jesus, who certainly has no 
more claims to my love than have the revolutionary 
heroes who laid down their lives for my liberty ? It 
is unjust to ask me to love Jesus above all others. I 
can not do it. 

One more text is enough to show the imperfections 
of biblical precepts. John, the beloved disciple of 
Jesus, says, "If there come any unto you and bring 
not this doctrine, receive him not into your house^ 
neither bid him God speed." (2 John i. 10.) 

Is this a good precept ? Suppose that the mercury 
w^as at this hour twenty degrees below zero ; and sup- 
pose, Christian reader, that I, contaminated by Spir- 
itualism as I am, was to drive up to your house in 
almost a frozen condition, would you receive me into 
your house? Or would you first question me con- 
cerning my religious faith ? Is not the precept, which 
would freeze me to death because of my honest con- 
victions, a bad one ? Would not the Bible be a 
better book if that was not in it ? Would you not 
like it better if all the precepts I have just quoted 



TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALISM. 91 

could be expunged ? Spiritualism does not believe 
them, does not tolerate them, even though they are in 
the Bible. It calls npon its head.a great deal of oppo- 
sition on account of its repugnancy to these biblical 
immoralities. Is not Spiritualism, in this respect, 
morally ahead of the Bible? 

MANY OF THE DOCTRINES OF THE BIBLE ARE MOR- 
ALLY DEGRADING IN THEIR TENDENCY. 

I have only space under this heading to mention 
a few points that do not come up in other depart- 
ments of this book. 

Any doctrine that teaches man that the conse- 
quences of his acts are not to be visited on him 
personally, will teach him to act without reference 
to personal consequences. What could more effectu- 
ally do this than the present system of religion called 
Christianity ? The Christian system does not teach 
that a person can be justified by any merits or acts of 
his own, but, on the contrary, that good actions or 
works are not recommendations to the favor of the 
great I AM ; on the contrary, it is the belief of a 
creed or dogma, rather than nobility of character, 
that is to commend us to the favor of their God and 
Christ. Paul says, " Being justified freely by his 
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 
whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through 
faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the 
remission of sins that are past, through the forbear- 
ance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his right- 
eousness : that he might be just, and the justifier of 
him which believeth in Jesus. Therefore we conclude 
that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of 
the law/' (Rom. hi. 24-28.) 



92 THE CONTRAST. 

Language could not possibly be plainer than this. 
The propitiation, and not honor, integrity, or virtue, is 
to do the work. He who believes, is to be justified by 
faith without the works of, or obedience to, the law. Is 
not this calculated to lead from, rather than to obedi- 
ence to moral law ? I could not, with the stake 
before me, decide otherwise. 

In Rom. iv. 4-8, Paul argues the question still 
further. Hear him. "Now to him that worketh is 
the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But 
to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that 
justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for right- 
eousness. Even as David also describeth the bles- 
sedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth right- 
eousness without works, saying, Blessed are they 
whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are cov- 
ered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not 
impute sin." 

If the sentence, " But to him that worketh not, but 
believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith 
is counted for righteousness," is not calculated to put 
righteousness at a discount and ungodliness above par, 
then language fails to convey any meaning. 

Once more, this same apostle explains the matter as 
follows : " For by grace are ye saved through faith ; 
and that not of yourselves ; it is the gift of God ; not 
of works, lest any man should boast. (Eph. ii. 8, 9.) 

Nothing could be plainer. Your future destiny is 
not shaped by yourself, but is purely a work of grace 
or favor — a gift bestowed on the believer of certain 
tenets, entirely irrespective of anything done or left 
undone. 

Even the God of the Bible, who, of course, is held 



TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALISM. 93 

up as an example to his children in all things, is rep- 
resented as angry. (Psalms ii. 12 ; vii. 1.) Passionate. 
(Exod. xxxii. 10.) Weak. (Exod. xxxi. 17 ; Judges 
i. 18.) . Vascillating. (Gen. vi. 5, 7; Exod. xxxii. 14; 
Jonah hi. 10.) 

I submit, that in proportion as the Bible inspires 
respect for the character here, represented as God, it 
will incline people to imitate that character. Persons 
denying the infallibility of the Bible, and looking to 
the philosophy developed in modern Spiritualism as 
an aid to overcome the wickedness of the world, will 
have a better opportunity to learn and practice les- 
sons of morality. While the time spent in the study 
and imitation of the character of this God is worse 
than thrown away, that spent in investigating and 
practicing the laws of life, as developed in Spiritual- 
ism, must, as I shall show, result in the redemption 
of the race. 

THE DIFFERENCE. 

Having now shown some of the imperfections of the 
Bible, and its plan for reforming the world, I propose 
to exhibit some of the superiorities of Spiritualism in 
that direction. That the phenomena of Spiritualism 
in itself is calculated to make men better, cannot be 
disputed. The spiritual phenomena always appeals 
to the highest qualities of man's nature, — that is, 
to his social nature. A mother's influence over a 
child in earth-life is of course designed for good, and 
if properly used, must tend toward the moral and 
intellectual development of the child. Even the 
watch care of the mother will put the child on its 
guard ; so will a belief that fathers, mothers, broth- 



94 THE CONTRAST. 

ers, and sisters, on the other side of death's narrow 
stream, incline men to virtue in this life ; yet it is not 
claimed that this is the chief superiority of Spiritual- 
ism over opposing religions. Spiritualism and Spirit- 
ualists have learned that the world cannot be reformed 
by precepts. The trial of that has been quite suffi- 
cient. The world needs more to be shown how to 
put into practice the good that it knows than it does 
an urging to obey precepts of any kind. It does but 
little good to inform a drowning man that he can be 
saved by swimming to the shore. No one on the 
shore knows better than he that there is salvation for 
him on the shore. All he wants is instruction and 
ability to get to the shore. 

The gospel, as I have shown, failed to teach its 
adherents how to perform the right. Paul said, 
"How to perform that which is good, I find not." 
The world needs teaching more than commanding. 
Dissertations on the folly or misery of sin, or on " the 
beauty of holiness," will never save the world. The 
drunkard knows the evils of intemperance better than 
the temperance lecturer can point them out. He 
knows whisky robs him of his brains and fills him 
with devils and hells, but like Paul, " when he would 
do good evil is present with him." The thing needed 
is a system of philosophy, the carrying out of which 
will naturally, and apparently without effort, make 
the world better. 

Churches have been preaching of regeneration as the 
panacea for all the wickedness there is in the world. 
Spiritualists, having tested the matter in those pro- 
fessing to have passed that ordeal, have made the 
important discovery that no /^-generation can over- 



TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALISM. 95 

come the faults imparted at the first generation. They 
have learned that if you would have the man right, 
you must have the child right ; and if you would have 
the child right, you must have him begotten under 
the right circumstances, of parents properly mated, 
and at the right time ; and then certain conditions 
must be thrown around the mother during the period 
of gestation. 

Spiritualists have learned that one kind of food 
will make one kind of head, heart, and muscle, and 
another kind of food another ; that if you wish to 
make a hog of your child, but little effort is needed 
more than to feed him plenty of hog, and let him live 
as much like a hog as possible. Precepts and exam- 
ple can not make an evenly balanced child of one who 
lives after the example named above. Feed persons 
properly at proper times, in such quantities as they 
need of the food they need ; give them the right kind 
of beds, in large, properly ventilated rooms ; give 
them proper quantities of sleep, at the proper Rours, 
with their bodies properly inclined, and their heads in 
the right direction, and you will, in two generations, 
cure depravity in man, and the churches of the doc- 
trine of total depravity. Thus you will have over- 
come the necessity for am 7 other kind of preaching 
than can be clone by the village schoolmaster. 

The investigation of the spiritual phenomena and 
development of its philosophy, has opened the door to 
the investigation of the varied sciences coming under 
the names, Magnetism, Mesmerism, Clairvoyance, Elec- 
tricity, Psychometry, and Psychology. The investi- 
gation of these and kindred sciences developed by 
Spiritualism, has taught us that everything in the 



96 THE CONTRAST. 

universe has polarity, or, in other words, a north and 
south pole, — a positive and negative force. We have 
also learned that everything is harmonious, or what is 
generally called good, in proportion as it harmonizes 
with nature. At night, when darkness reigns, nature 
sleeps : that is the proper time for persons who would 
be harmonious to sleep. If you will sleep when 
nature sleeps, with your north side or end to nature's 
north, permitting your south to correspond with na- 
ture's south, you will be more harmonious with nature, 
and thus will be enabled to blend with her more per- 
fectly and receive her instructions to a better advan- 
tage than you possibly can by any other means. When 
you perfectly blend with nature you will be in har- 
rtiony with yourself; then you are what the world 
calls evenly balanced. In that condition you could 
not kill, rob, steal, get mad, or in any way wrong 
any one. The person who is properly brought into 
the world and lives thus, naturally reads and inter- 
prets correctly nature's great infallible volume, he 
can not go astray. Nothing is more needed in our 
colleges now than professors who shall thoroughly 
understand and teach the science of reform — of 
living truly. These things can not be brought about 
in a single day. " The mills of the gods grind slow- 
ly, but grind exceeding small." Let Spiritualism 
work after the plan it is now so successfully inaugu- 
rating, and in a few thousand years the long looked- 
for " good time coming " will be here. 

I can not better close this chapter than by present- 
ing a summary of the issue between Christians and 
Spiritualists in the form of a few 



TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE AND SPIBIT UALISM. 97 
SYLLOGISTIC ARGUMENTS. 

Proposition. Resolved, That the religion of mod- 
ern Spiritualism is better calculated to morally, men- 
tally, and spiritually elevate humanity, than that of 
the Bible. 

SYLLOGISM NO. 1. 

1. That which places good works second to any- 
thing else can not, in the first sense of the word, be 
morally elevating. 

2. But the Bible gives moral obligations, or good 
works, only a secondary position. 

3. Therefore the Bible is not, in the first sense of 
the word, calculated to morally elevate mankind. 
Proof — Eph. ii. 8, 9 ; Rom, iii. 20-28. 

SYLLOGISM NO. 2. 

1. That which loves sin can not be morally elevat- 
ing. 

2. But the gospel does love sin. 

3. Therefore the gospel is not morally elevating. 
Proof — Rom. vi. 17. 

SYLLOGISM NO. 3. 

1. That which can not teach a person how to do 
right, can not morally elevate him. 

2. But the Bible can not teach a person how to per- 
form that w4iich is right. 

3. Therefore the Bible can not morally elevate its 
adherents. Proof — Rom. vii. 14-25. 

SYLLOGISM NO. 4. 

1. That which teaches that persons may escape the 

7 



98 THE CONTKAST. 

consequences of their own acts will teach them to act 
without reference to consequences. 

2. But the Bible does teach that persons may escape 
the consequences of their acts. 

3. Therefore the Bible teaches its adherents to act 
without reference to consequences. Proof — 1 John 
i. 7 ; ii. 1, 2. 

SYLLOGISM NO. 5. 

1. That which leads to war, rapine, and the shed- 
ding of blood, is immoral in its tendency. 

2. But the Bible has ever led its followers to war 
and bloodshed. 

3. Therefore the Bible is immoral in its tendency. 
Proof — The whole history of the church. Numb, 
xxxi. 1, 7-17 ; Jer. xlviii. 10 ; Joel hi. 10-14 ; Luke 
xxii. 36. 

SYLLOGISM NO. 6. 

1. That which warns against education and philos- 
ophy is mentally depressing. 

2. But the Bible does warn against education and 
philosophy. 

3. Therefore the Bible is calculated to mentally 
depress its adherents. Proof — 1 Cor. xi. 1-4; Col. 
ii. 8 ; 1 Cor. xiv. 38. 

SYLLOGISM NO. 7. 

1. That which urges an individual to hate and for- 
sake his own family is immoral. 

2. But the Bible urges men to forsake and hate 
their families. 

3. Therefore the Bible is immoral. Proof— Matt 
x. 34-38 ; Luke xiv. 26. 



TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALISM. 99 
SYLLOGISM NO. 8. 

1. That which leads to intemperance is immoral. 

2. The Bible leads to intemperance. 

3. Therefore the Bible is immoral. Proof — Deut. 
xiv. 26 ; Prov. xxxi. 6 ; 1 Tim. v. 23. 

SYLLOGISM NO. 9. 

1. That which teaches that our most secret actions 
and thoughts are liable at any time to be read to the 
multitude, will teach its adherents to so act and think 
that they may be willing that their thoughts and acts 
may be thus read. 

2. But Spiritualism teaches that media can and 
often do read our acts and thoughts. 

3. Therefore it teaches its adherents to see that 
even its secret acts and thoughts are pure. Proof — 
The whole spiritual phenomena. 

SYLLOGISM NO. 10. 

1. That which teaches that each individual must 
abide the consequences of his or her own acts, will 
teach its adherents to act with reference to conse- 
quences. 

2. But Spiritualism does teach that each individual 
must abide the consequences of his or her own acts. 

3. Therefore Spiritualism teaches its adherents to 
so act that they may be willing to take, in their own 
persons, the consequences of every act. Proof — All 
the spiritual literature of the nineteenth century. 

In conclusion of this chapter permit me to say, that 



100 THE CONTRAST. 

if Spiritualism boasts of one thing more than another, 
it is its eclecticism, its optimism. It takes 

" truth wherever found, 

Whether on Christian or on heathen ground." 

The Quaker poet, in his contrast of the Old and 
New, thus apostrophizes the New : — 

" For still the new transcends the old, 
In signs and tokens many fold : 
Slaves rise up men ; the olive waves, 
With roots deep set in battle graves. 

" Through the harsh noises of the day 
A low, sweet prelude finds its way ; 
Through clouds of doubt and creeds of fear, 
A light is breaking calm and clear. 

" Henceforth my heart shall sigh no more 
For olden time and holier shore ; 
God's love and blessing, then and there, 
Are now, and here, and everywhere ! " 

That writer and readers may be enabled to bring 
into every-day practice the best good of all religions, 
is my most sincere desire. 



THE MISSION OF SPIKITTTALISM. 101 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE MISSION OF SPIRITUALISM. 

Spiritualism necessarily iconoclastic. — A superior Light. — Jesus vs. Moses. 

— The world's Light and Saviours. — Relation of Spiritualism to Christianity. 

— The decay of Institutions. — Babylon, Greece, Rome. — Republicanism 
as it was and is. — All stationary Institutions doomed. — The Good of all 
preserved. — A moving World. — A glance at the Christian World. — " What 
went ye out for to see." — A lethargic State. — The Infidel World. — A 
Feast of Negatives. — Dominion of Orthodoxy. — Programme changed. — 
Ministers on their good Behavior. — A Thought awakener. — The Hydesville 
Manifestations. — The Vox Populi. — Table Tippings. — New Theories of 
explanation. — Writing Mediumship. — A new set of Thoughts awakened. — 

— Entrancement. — Sublimity of the Subject. — Efforts to confound the Me- 
dia. — Opposers confounded. — A change of Base. — A new element of suc- 
cess. — A Hearing obtained. — Number of its Adherents. — Elements of Suc- 
cess. — Not a Matter of Faith. — Quality of Spiritualists. — Their Happiness. 

— Questions for Skeptics. — Death and the Grave destroyed. — An outside 
Work. — A few Words with Spiritualists. — A Bid for your Spiritualism. — 
Our Duty. 

Although there never was, nor ever can be, a 
word written in defence of Spiritualism, but that must 
to some extent point out its mission, a chapter devoted 
especially to an elucidation of that subject may not be 
amiss. Though Spiritualism may have hitherto ap- 
peared almost exclusively iconoclastic, it is not so ; its 
chief object is not to tear down, but to build. In 
clearing the foundations of a new superstructure it is 
sometimes necessary to remove the ruins and rubbish 
of old dilapidated ones. The sun does not shine on 
purpose to put the moon and stars to shame ; yet the 
more effulgent light of the sun has always so dimmed 



102 THE CONTRAST. 

the lesser lights that they might have become jealous, 
and urged that the naughty sun only shines to obscure 
them. They could have said its work is purely that 
of an incendiary ; see, it has totally obscured our 
light ! How dreadful ! The millions who walked by 
our light last night must now be deprived of that 
blessed privilege ! 

Jesus did not come into the world to fight Judaism, 
— to overthrow it by positive combat, — but to out- 
shine it ; this Christians think he did. He showed his 
own superiority, and that of all who were guided by 
the light that shone from and through his inspirations, 
and a similar one coming to themselves, to any books 
that were ever written. Indeed, so far as books 
printed with ink on paper were concerned, Jesus was 
never backward in expressing his infidelity. Did he 
quote Moses, he more frequently quoted him to dis- 
pute his words than otherwise. Moses had said, " An 
eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth ; " but Jesus 
could not indorse the sayings of the inspired Moses. 
He followed this quotation with a disjunctive, " But I 
say unto you, resist not evil" Did he quote the com- 
mand, " Thou shalt not kill," he read it only to show 
its imperfection, — that if man could be kept from 
being angry with his brother without cause, he would 
not need any such command. He warned the people, 
that except their righteousness should exceed the 
righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, whose 
righteousness consisted in strict obedience to the let- 
ter of the Old Testament, they could not enter into 
the kingdom of heaven. The command, " Thou shalt 
not commit adultery," he thought could be rendered 
useless by man becoming so spiritual as to have all 



THE MISSION OF SPIRITUALISM. 103 

lust taken out of his heart. Moses had given certain 
laws concerning divorce ; Jesus did not indorse them. 
Thus this great teacher takes up one command after 
another of the Old Testament, and either suggests an 
improvement, or comes out squarely in opposition to 
them. 

All this might lead some one to ask, " But if you 
overthrow the authority of the Scriptures in this way, 
how will we know what to take for a guide ? ' ' All 
this Jesus answers : " You are the light of the world ; 
a city set upon a hill can not be hid; men do not 
light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a can- 
dlestick, and it giveth light unto all them that are in 
the house." Thus he teaches that the world is to get 
its light from those who have this inspiration, not 
from books. The world had long been looking for 
saviors, but Jesus answers that : " Ye are the salt of 
the earth." Then he portrays the consequence of the 
salt having lost its savor. 

Now, I declare that Spiritualism occupies the same 
relation to Christianity, that Christianity did to Juda- 
ism, and is destined to eclipse Christianity, and inau- 
gurate a new dispensation in the same way. 

All institutions in point of time are local, and as 
every institution of the past has given way to some- 
thing grander in the future, so all present institutions, 
even those regarded as the most sacred, must give 
place to those more perfect, better adapted to the 
wants of man, that yet lie in the womb of the infinite 
future. The Babylonian government was better than 
the one which preceded it ; so that of the Medes and 
Persians was better than that of the Babylonians ; but 
" Mene, Mene, Tekel," was written on that, and it 



104 THE CONTRAST. 

gave way to the still more humane government of 
Greece. Greece could not always stand. The in- 
domitable Romans swept that government into obliv- 
ion, retaining all there was good of it. Thus I might 
trace the history of nations, and find that the univer- 
sal law is, the good must be superseded by the better. 
When the people get ripe for republicanism, a repub- 
lican government is founded, and tyranny trembles 
before it. Republicanism as it was, was thought good 
enough, but it could not long satisfy the ever-progress- 
ive march of humanity toward intellectual and spirit- 
ual freedom. It had to be remodeled. The Consti- 
tution of the United States has already had fifteen 
amendments, and now there are many who think it 
sadly needs fifteen more. Thus institutions are pass- 
ing, and newer, better, and higher ones taking their 
places. It can not be possible that what is called 
Christianity can escape this general wreck of institu- 
tions. As all that was good of Judaism was brought 
over and incorporated into the Christian system, so 
all that is worth preserving in Christianity will be in- 
corporated into all future systems. For several hun- 
dred years Christianity, under an outside pressure, has 
steadily lopped off one after another of its excrescences, 
until now it could hardly be recognized by an ancient 
Christian. Yet this work is not finished. There are 
prunings and graftings for it in the immediate future, 
which will cause it to lose its identity. While insti- 
tutions are stationary, a common and true saying is, 

THE WORLD MOVES. 

The world ever has moved ; sometimes it has moved 
go slowly that we have almost been compelled to look 



THE MISSION OF SPIRITUALISM. 105 

through an entire century to see that it moved at all. 
For some cause it has moved more in the last twenty- 
five years than in three centuries prior to that. What 
is the cause of this ? Simultaneously with the intro- 
duction of modern Spiritualism into the world, came 
a general awakening on almost every imaginable sub- 
ject. A general agitation of thought seems, somehow 
or other, to connect itself with Spiritualism. In order 
to see this more perfectly, it may be well for us to take 
a view of the theological world, or that portion 6f it 
called Christian, at the time Spiritualism was intro- 
duced. First, let us take 

A GLANCE AT THE ORTHODOX WORLD. 

No observer can fail to have noted the great change 
that has overtaken so-called Evangelicalism since 1848'. 
At that time, the staples of orthodoxy were, the doc- 
trine of Original Sin, Total Depravity, an Angry God, 
Eternal Hell, and salvation from the wrath of this God, 
the pains of a fiery hell, and the clutches of an al- 
mighty personal devil, by virtue of a vicarious atone- 
ment. If my readers went to church at all in those 
days, they went to see a minister dressed in a peculiar 
style, stuck up in a close-communion pulpit, half way 
between the floor and the ceiling, one who claimed to 
be a mouthpiece for Almighty God, divinely called, 
and sent to denounce the wrath of an offended God 
upon their unprotected heads. They could, as they 
sat under his eloquence and logic, see themselves as 
poor defenseless worms, and God, as a great stogy- 
boot, raised over them to crush their life out. They 
went to hear of a " heart deceitful above all things, 
and desperately wicked ; " men and women were 



106 THE CONTRAST. 

compared to " cages filled with unclean and hateful 
birds;" to " the sea casting up mire and dirt." 
Thus, from Sunday to Sunday, the people went to 
hear themselves denounced and abused. For some 
cause or other, a great change has come " over the 
spirit of the dreams " of the clergymen. We hear 
but little now of this solemn folly, Why is it? I 
answer : the people have grown away from it. Min- 
isters would preach to empty pews if they now 
preached such nonsense. 

The truth is, the world has thoroughly awaked 
from the lethargy that characterized it forty years ago. 
Then you went to meeting from Sunday to Sunday to 
hear the same old sing-song story told in the same old 
way. It was but little matter to you what the minis- 
ter preached. You went to church, not for an intel- 
lectual or spiritual feast, but because it was your duty. 
You had to go to church or to hell, and you thought 
of the two you preferred the former. No minister 
in those days dared meet the consequences of ventur- 
ing too far from the " ancient landmarks." Thus 
they repeated themselves and each other. When the 
barrel of sermons had been preached out, they could 
turn it over, knock the other head in, and commence 
again. One set of sermons would do for father, son, 
and grandson ; and so on, almost ad infinitum. The 
world, wdth few exceptions, was in a lethargic state, — 
priests and people alike asleep, — hardly one sufficiently 
awake to hail the dawn of a new thought. 

THE INFIDEL WORLD. 

If we turn from the orthodox to the infidel world, 
we find that, in some respects, in the same condition. 



THE MISSION OF SPIRITUALISM. 107 

Infidels in those days were not thinking as they are 

now; the most, if not all of them, seemed perfectly 

contented with negating the affirmations of orthodoxy. 

They were building no churches, schools, or colleges ; 

in fact, were doing nothing for the world more than 

denying almost anything a minister would affirm. 

Thus one portion of the world was stagnant, and the 

other on a tread-wheel. 

Orthodoxy all this time held a dominion over the 

mind, scarcely excelled by the Catholic church in its 

palmiest days. The minister was God Almighty's 

mouthpiece, his great vicegerent. He dressed, looked, 

talked, and acted a kind of " stand-aside-for-I-am- 

holier-than-thou " doctrine, and you granted it. He 

was a " Learned Divine" made of better material than 

common mortals, had more influence with heaven, 

was better acquainted with the gods and devils than 

were the common herds of the human family. When 

you met him, you took off your hat and made your 

lowest bow. When he expressed an opinion, it settled 

the question, especially if it was a theological opinion. 

If you differed with him, you were inclined to keep 

that difference to yourself. Few dared brave the 

world so far as to express a difference of opinion with 

the theologian who had arisen to any notoriety in the 

world. 

A CHANGE. 

Now we see a great change. Men have come to re- 
gard the minister as being about as good as an ordi- 
nary mortal, provided he behaves as well. If he steps 
aside from the path of right, his actions are criticised 
the same as that of any other sinner. Formerly it 
was not strange to see one minister settled over one 



108 THE CONTRAST. 

congregation for twenty, or even fifty years. Now 
hearers criticise the dress, manner of address, doc- 
trine, and logic of the discourse so astutely, that few 
ministers can stand the ordeal. The result is, a 
change of ministers is required more frequently than 
before. The church is progressing. Some of its mem- 
bers progress rapidly, some slowly. The minister is 
too liberal for one portion of the church, not liberal 
enough for another ; and the result of all this is, a 
general upheaving, a tearing up of the old founda- 
tions. But enough of this now. A few more thoughts 
are in reserve on the subject. 

THOUGHT AWAKENED. 

A writer once said, "When God lets a thinker 
loose on the world, let it beware." He might have 
said, When God lets a thought out, let the world take 
warning. Who can tell what new worlds one seed- 
thought may bring to light? Let Sir Isaac Newton, 
Harvey, Kepler, Galileo, Luther, or Jenner get an 
idea, and they will revolutionize the whole world of 
thought. Well, the theological world was wrapped in 
deep slumber, never even dreaming that the work of 
its renovation Avas so nigh at hand. When the spirit- 
raps came in the family of one John D. Fox, at Hydes- 
ville, N. Y., they came as an awakener. Be patient, 
dear reader, and you shall see the result. When the 
sounds were first heard in the winter of 1848, no one 
suspected the cause. The thumping on the little pine 
table, however, awakened the world sufficiently to 
have it inquire after the cause. All is well. A per- 
son who is soundly asleep can not even have his atten- 
tion attracted by the raps, or inquire after their cause. 



THE MISSION OF SPIRITUALISM. 109 

The truth is, these raps have startled theologians and 
scientists from their slumbers enough so they can in- 
quire, What is this ? The inquiry itself is the agita- 
tion of thought ; but who can answer ? This is the 
first time the world has had an opportunity to ask a 
question, and no one is sufficiently awake to answer. 
One suggests that it is the devil ; another, that it is 
machinery ; and another has his peculiar answer. 
Men, women, and children rush out to hear the tiny 
sounds, and to see if they can decipher the cause. 
The wise and the unwise are alike confounded by it. 
The theologian begins to search his Bible ; the chem- 
ist goes into his laboratory ; all take their " divining- 
rods " to .see if they can divine the cause of the mys- 
terious sounds. The stories of the raps are published 
in all the daily and weekly newspapers ; those who are 
curious, and have the means, journey to the Mecca of 
Spiritualism, to learn what they can of this new phe- 
nomenon. Thus the world is aroused. One arrives at 
one conclusion, and another at another. These con- 
tradictory hypotheses rub against each other. A gen- 
eral fight ensues among the contradictory positions of 
an awakened world. Toe-joints, knee-joints, machin- 
ery, electricity, trickery, and od force so effectually 
play the game of Kilkenny cats with each other, that 
not one of them is left to tell the tale of the destruc- 
tion of the others. Thus the warfare goes on. 

Hundreds that fell in the battle against the new 
phenomena, soon found themselves resurrected on the 
other side, and with strength enough to do effective 
battle against either or all of the contradictory theories 
brought to bear against it. A circumstance as purely 
accidental as that of the acorn falling on Sir Isaac 



110 THE CONTRAST. 

Newton's head, had revealed an intelligence con- 
nected with the raps which was first proclaimed by 
a little girl, who said, "Why, mother, it can hear ! " 
and second, by the same child, "Only look, mother ; it 
can see as well as hear!" 

For a time the angels seemed content with this 
single form of manifestation ; they did not seem to 
wish to show us at once all they had in store for their 
brothers and sisters yet in the flesh ; so it was rap, rap, 
rap, here, there, and everywhere. After the world 
had investigated the raps sufficiently, as the exclusive 
form of manifestation, and some had decided in favor 
and others against them, our spirit friends vouchsafed 
another form of manifestation. Tables began to mani- 
fest a strange disposition to get up from the floor, turn 
over, and move about the room ; and, strange to say, 
there was an intelligence connected with these forms 
of manifestation ! Tables, chairs, and stools would 
answer questions that were entirely beyond the ken 
of any in the room. 

Now, the world, that supposed it had thoroughly 
exploded the raps, was called upon for an explana- 
tion of this. Alas for the ministry and scientists ! A 
new system of explanation was required, as much so 
as though it had been an entire, independent science 
that was to run the gantlet of their investigation. 
The result was, a new research and a readjustment 
of their theories to suit the circumstances. Thus, still 
more thought was awakened. This was enough. The 
agitation of thought was, in this case, as in others, 
the beginning of wisdom. The new theories of op- 
position brought to bear against Spiritualism were as 
unsuccessful as the old. Spiritualism was a " Ban- 



THE MISSION OF SPIBITTTALISM. Ill 

quo's Ghost," that refused to "down," even at the 
bidding of the ministry. 

By this time, the angel world had fully prepared, 
and were ready to exhibit to the world, a form of 
manifestation. Mediumistie individuals began to ob- 
serve hitherto unknown sensations in the muscles of 
the arm. Soon the arm, in many instances, lost its 
sense of feeling, and became uncontrolable. In this 
condition, without the brain or soul of the subject 
knowing what was to be done, the hand would grasp 
a pencil and write out a communication, in many in- 
stances filled with undoubted tests that the writing 
came from a dead friend, whose signature was attached 
to the communication. At other times, though the 
medium may have been inferior in organism and de- 
velopment, a communication would be written, which, 
for elegancy of diction, or argumentative power, could 
not have been equalled by any person present. This 
caused the world to put its thinking-cap on once 
more, and many who felt themselves fully competent 
to explain the raps, or tips, without admitting Spirit- 
ual agency, after the earnest inquiry, " What does this 
mean ? " found themselves converts to the spiritual 
philosophy. 

The combination of the rapping, tipping, and writ- 
ing manifestations were destined to ripen the world for 
something more sublime, which the angel world had 
in store. Now comes the deep, unconscious, entrance- 
ment. Little boys and girls, some of them hardly in 
their teens, found themselves suddenly thrown into 
an unconscious state by the new power, and in this 
condition would arise and give utterance to truths the 
most grand that ever fell from mortal lips. The sub- 



112 THE CONTRAST. 

limity, eloquence, and logic of the discourses had 
never been surpassed, seldom equaled. Those who 
had only been attracted to Spiritualism before as a 
series of phenomena, were now attracted on account 
of the profound interest they felt in the facts and phi- 
losophy that were being uttered by those whom every 
one knew were entirely ignorant of either. As the 
most sublime strains of praise issued from the mouths 
of these " babes," tears chased each other down the 
cheeks of those unused to weeping; and men and 
women began to exclaim, as in days of yore, " Truly, 
they speak as never man spake.'' Learned doctors, 
lawyers, ministers, and professors in institutions of 
learning, circumnavigated the range of their lore to 
find subjects upon which girls, not fourteen years old, 
could not, under this power, deliver a learned and 
eloquent speech. This all proved unavailing, so far 
as confounding the power Avas concerned ; for it showed 
a like familiarity with all subjects. Their efforts to 
" confound these mediums in their speech," were as 
futile as those of their ancient allies to confound the 
medium who overthrew Judaism. Departed poets re- 
turned, and, in strains the most rhythmical and sub- 
lime, not only answered every question asked, and 
solved every mystery presented, but told of their de- 
parture from earth, and their birth into a better country. 

A CHANGE OF BASE. 

Now Spiritualism, which had up to this point stood 
exclusively on the defensive, assumed the aggressive, 
and hoary-headed error fell before it like grass before 
the scythe. It now made a direct attack on systems 
which had long enough stayed the progress of the 



THE MISSION OF SPIRITUALISM. 113 

world. It bearded the lion in his den, and old errors, 
which had denied even the right of existence to Spirit- 
ualism, had to fight for their lives. From this time 
forward but few found time to attack Spiritualism ; 
all had more than they could do to defend their own 
fortifications. Of course Spiritualism now began to 
spread more rapidly than ever before, for it had not only 
all the phenomena that had characterized it up to this 
point of time, but a philosophy to commend it to the 
judgment of those who think. Its advocates were 
not compelled to go through a course of from seven to 
twenty years of study to be ready to enter upon its 
ministry. It frequently occurred that a fifteen minutes' 
schooling in a spirit circle was sufficient to prepare its 
preacher to more than meet any foe. 

IT HAS OBTAINED A HEARING. 

Spiritualism has not only as a distinctive form of 
religion gained the attention of the world, and proved 
its " right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- 
ness," but has, somehow or other, succeeded in ingra- 
tiating itself into the general favor of the world, until 
there is little of the world that does not, somehow or 
other, mix with and recognize it. It is rapidly find- 
ing its way into the stories, poems, songs, and all 
other literature of the age. It is in one way or an- 
other being dramatized, and put on the boards in the 
theatres, and spreading even in the church in every 
conceivable way. Such books as Gates Ajar, unwit- 
tingly indorsing the phenomena and philosophy of 
Spiritualism, find their way into almost every family, 
while books written in opposition to Spiritualism sel- 
dom pay their publishers. 
8 



114 THE CONTRAST. 

With regard to the number of converts that Spirit- 
ualism has made, I have but little to say. Having 
personally made no figures on the matter, I am not 
prepared to speak with definiteness. Calculations 
have been made varying all the way from nine to 
fifteen millions. If it was only two millions, or even 
one million, the work would be wonderful beyond all 
precedent. Starting out not a quarter of a century 
since, with no John the Baptist to herald it, no press 
or preachers to stand up in its defence, not only 
without a worker in its behalf, but without a believer 
in the world, and wading through the most dire oppo- 
sition that any theory ever met ; all the prejudices 
of the world being brought to bear against it ; the 
pulpit and press volunteering their services in the 
opposition ; all manner of honorable and dishonorable 
means used in the warfare against it, — the existence of 
a very few Spiritualists is proof of the power of Spiritr 
ualism to resist opposition, and, like an old sword, 
come out of every fight brighter than it went in. 
Personally I have traveled through thirty-four States 
and the Canadas, and, with the exception of New 
Orleans and San Francisco, have preached Spiritualism 
in every important city in the Union. In nearly every 
city my audiences have been much larger than those 
attending any church. Not only do Spiritualists ex- 
ist, but there are spiritual societies scattered through 
all our cities, villages, and hamlets; and the " Mace- 
donian " cry still comes in from every quarter of the 
globe. The demand for first-class lecturers is to-day 
ten times as great as the supply. This is a proof that 
the harvest is ripening. The gathering of souls to 
the great spiritual harvest is to be greatly increased 
in the future. 



THE MISSION OF SPIRITUALISM. 115 

Now Spiritualism is thoroughly advertised ; the 
prejudices have been met and overcome ; our presses 
and ministers are at work ; new media, and new forms 
of mediumship, are being brought into the field ; al- 
most every daily paper contains the history of some- 
thing new connected with Spiritualism. Thus have 
we greater reason to be encouraged than ever before. 
Spiritualism has set out to conquer the world, and 
will not rest until it has accomplished this part of its 
mission. 

Although Spiritualism has done the work I have 
just designated, I do not think there is one Spiritualist 
on earth stronger in his faith for the advancement 
Spritualism has made in the world. The millions of 
Spiritualists are every one of them converts, either 
from personal tests to themselves, which would be 
just as good if no other person had ever received 
tests, or because they see the harmony of its phe- 
nomena and philosophy with all nature. Be it under- 
stood, the difference between Spiritualism and all 
other religions is, other religions are all matters of 
faith. Spiritualism is not a faith at all ; its advocates 
tell what they know, not what they believe. They 
testify to what they have seen, not to what they have 
heard that others have seen. 

THE QUALITY OF ITS CONVERTS. 

Spiritualism, like a reform advocated by an ancient 
medium, finds more believers among the " common 
people " than among those who have more of the 
honor and wealth of this world on which to rely. 
Yet, while those of "low estate " gladly rally to its 
standard, there are not a few of those, whose names 



116 THE CONTRAST. 

would be an honor to any cause, in our ranks. Spirit- 
ualists are not all fools or fanatics. Among the lead- 
ing people of the world who have avowed Spiritual- 
ism, either in its name or doctrines, or both, may be 
classed such names as Queen Victoria, Alexander, the 
Czar of Russia, Napoleon, ex-Emperor of France, the 
late Lord Brougham, Hon. J. R. Giddings, Senator 
Sprague, William Lloyd Garrison, the late Governor 
Talmadge, Hon. R. D. Owen, Judge J. W. Edmonds, 
Hon. B. F. Wade, the late President Lincoln, and 
besides more than as many other statesmen, who stand 
quite as high as those above named, some of the best 
scientists and philosophers in the world. Thus has 
Spritualism proven itself adapted to all states and 
conditions of people. But this is not all. Spiritual- 
ism has not come simply to make a few millions of 
converts, and among them not a few of the greatest 
men and women on earth, but it is doing a yet nobler 
- and grander work. I am now ready to consider 

THE HAPPINESS OF ITS CONVERTS. 

On this department of my subject, I only need to 
appeal to my Spiritualistic readers. They are cer- 
tainly competent witnesses. They most of them have 
enjoyed or endured all the consolation that could pos- 
sibly flow from the religions by which they are sur- 
rounded. A vast majority of the Spiritualists have 
come from the churches ; many of them have been 
acceptable preachers in the various sects throughout 
Christendom. They know just what the various phases 
of evangelicalism can do for its adherents, having ex- 
perienced all its consolations. They also know what 
Spiritualism can do. By a blessed experience, they 



THE MISSION OF SPIRITUALISM. 117 

have learned the difference between faith and knowl- 
edge. Then, I ask, are they not competent to testify 
in this case ? Does the skeptical reader object ? Very 
well ; then we will put him on the stand. "Out of 
thine own mouth will I judge thee." 

Friend Skeptic, I ask you to answer me a few plain 
questions. 

1. Which would render you the more happy, — to 
believe that about six thousand years ago, a short- 
sighted God had made man a pure, good, and just man 
and woman, but had, at the same time, or before, 
made a tempter, who had tempted and enticed this 
sinless couple, so that they had fallen, insomuch that 
the men we see now are only the ruins, the tvreck, 
of a former race ; or to believe that man commenced 
low down in the scale of being, and had arisen to the 
noble specimens you see in the world to-day, with 
every prospect for better men in the future ? 

2. Which do you prefer to believe, — "original 
sin," " total depravity ; " or that man, like the peach, 
commenced low down in the scale of being, and de- 
veloped the baser, the so-called evil faculties first, but 
is progressing, growing better every year, developing, 
rounding out, so that some day he will stand compara- 
tively perfect ? 

3. Which would make you the more happy, — to 
believe in endless hell, or endless progress? Which 
would you prefer, — to think of your unconverted child, 
in the other world, as scorching in endless flames, or 
endlessly progressing toward all that is pure and good ? 

4. Which would you prefer, — to daily talk with a 
sainted companion, or beatified parent or child, or 
know that they were locked up in an orthodox 



118 THE CONTRAST. 

heaven or hell, with not the least interest in you 
or yours ? 

5. Which would you prefer, — to go to an orthodox 
i heaven, knowing that some of your friends were on 
the road to endless perdition, and the remainder of 
them suffering all of life's vicissitudes, and you not 
have the privilege of coming to them, or to take your 
position in a Spiritualists' " Summer Land," with the 
privilege of working for, and bringing earth-friends to 
a purer and better life ? 

Dear reader, I know we are not to make Spiritual- 
ism true or false by popular vote; a theory is not 
made false or true at our option ; yet the answer to 
these questions will certainly suggest the comparative 
happiness of those who believe, and those who reject 
Spiritualism. 

Spiritualism has shown us the " Gates Ajar." Our 
dead are brought back to us. We see them"; we talk 
with them ; we enjoy their society. Death has been 
robbed ! His sting is gone ! The grave has been de- 
spoiled of its victory ! Those whom, in times past, 
we have regarded as locked in the gloomy vault, are 
not dead. We see them, hear them, and know they 
are not dead. They are with us, — more than ever 
ours. Spiritualism has come with all this good news. 
O glorious religion ! May thy banners be unfurled, 
and thy peaceful influences spread, until all the world 
shall know thy beauty, and worship at thy feet ! 

Even this is not the whole of the mission of Spirit- 
ualism. 

ITS OUTSIDE WOEK 

is greater, if possible, than anything yet mentioned. 
Spiritualism has already re-made the religions of the 



THE MISSION OF SPIRITUALISM. 119 

country. Where is the minister who has not re-made 
his discourses in obedience to its behests ? Where is 
the minister who now preaches a hell of fire and brim- 
stone ? What has become of the doctrine of total de- 
pravity, with its etceteras ? What has become of the 
anger that rankled so in the bosom of an orthodox 
God forty years ago ? Ah, these things are all gone ! 
What killed them? I answer — Spiritualism! The 
people have had a taste of Spiritualism, and will not 
turn from it to the husks they have been wont to get 
from the pulpits. The result is, the ministers have 
been compelled to re-make their discourses, or preach 
to empty pews. This will go on until Spiritualism 
proper will be preached in every pulpit in the land. 
O glorious day ! Speed it, Heaven ! 

A WOED TO SPIRITUALISTS. 

Spiritualists, the work I have spoken of in this 
chapter, already accomplished, is grand. Our religion 
has already saved thousands from many miseries in 
this life, and the tormenting fear of untold agony in 
the next. Many honest, useful, rational citizens to- 
day owe their happiness, if not their sanity, to the 
kindly and timely interference of Spiritualism. Now 
permit me to ask j^ou, what would you take for your 
Spiritualism ? Suppose I had the money to pay into 
your hands now, how much would it take to buy you 
out ? Remember, I am to buy your part of Spiritual- 
ism, and the work it has done, out of the world ! You 
are not to know that it exists. I am also to buy its 
indirect influences through the churches and through 
society over you, so you shall be morally and mentally 
where you would have been had Spiritualism never 



120 THE CONTRAST. 

been heard of. In its stead a yawning, fiery hell ; in 
short, old theology, with all its devils and goblins 
grim, shall stare you in the face. 

Now you are ready to talk to me. How much will 
you take for your Spiritualism ? Ah, if all the world 
were in one scale, and Spiritualism and its conse- 
quences in the other, I think I see you getting into 
the scale with Spiritualism. Now, let me tell you, 
there are thousands in this world to-day, almost, if not 
quite, where you were before Spiritualism put its ten- 
der hands so lovingly under you. Do you realize that 
every new truth brings new duties ? This great 
spiritual boon came to many of you not only without 
money and without price, but absolutely unsought, 
unwanted, and, in not a few instances, unwelcomed. 
Now it is your privilege to co-operate with the angels, 
and carry this work forward. 

If Spiritualism has made you happy, it is reasonable 
that it would do the same for your neighbor. Could 
you not make a little effort to lay it before him? 
Millions are being squandered every year to send the 
gospel to the heathen, and millions more are exhausted 
in preaching a worse than heathenish gospel to your 
neighbors. You have the power to at least partly 
counteract that work. Will you do it ? If you are 
alone in this blessed knowledge, will you at least make 
one thorough effort to get our lectures and literature 
before your neighbors ? If you are not alone, will 
you co-operate with your brethren in trying to speed 
this cause in your own immediate vicinity ? You may 
thus be a means of blessing, and being a " savor of 
life unto life" to others, as you have been blessed, 
and thus bring a double blessing to your own soul. 



THE MISSION OF SPIRITUALISM. 121 

The privilege of assisting in this work now, while you 
are needed, is extended to you. Do, I beseech you, 
step into this gap. There is not a drone in all the 
hives of our adversaries. Let us emulate their ex- 
ample. 

" If you can not in the conflict 

Prove yourself a soldier true — 
If, when fire and smoke are thickest, 

There's no work for you to do : 
When the battle field is silent, 

You can go with careful tread, — 
You can bear away the wounded, 

You can cover up the dead. 

44 Do not, then, stand idly waiting 

For some greater work to do ; 
Fortune is a lazy goddess — 

She will never come to you. 
Go and toil in any vineyard; 

Do not fear to do or dare; 
If you want a field of labor, 

You can find it anywhere." 

That Spiritualists may realize what the angels have 
done for them, and show their appreciation of this 
work by a consecration of their all, and concentrated 
and concerted action in behalf of the truths they love, 
and that their works may be crowned with more 
abundant success in the future than in the past, is the 
most earnest desire of the writer of this volume. 



122 THE CONTRAST. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE CUI BOKO OF SPIRITUALISM. 

A proper Inquiry. — Its Work slow. — Jesus' Argument. — "By their Fruits 
shall ye know them." — Author's Experience. — A Struggle with Poverty. — 
Letter from Dr. Newton. — Reflections on the same. — Author takes Courage. 
— Dr. Newton's three Months' Work.— Suicide of a Girl. — Her dead Mother 
kept her from Sin. — Worldly good of Spiritualism. — Serfs liberated.— Liz- 
zie Keizer and the Apple Pedler. — Experience as a Healer. — Cure of a with- 
ered Hand. — A Lady saved. — That Bread Fund. — A Medium saved from a 
Railroad Accident. — A Train of Cars saved by Spirit Interposition. — Peter 
West saves a Train of Cars. — A Collision avoided. — A Conflagration saved 
by Spirits. — Pairof Shoes sent to a Beggar. — Inventions by Spirits. — Moral 
good of Spiritualism. — A Methodist Lady in Trouble. — A Dialogue. — Petty 
Tyranny. — A Drunkard saved. — A Case in Wisconsin. — Case in Chicago. — 
Spirits curing Appetite for Tobacco. — A Medium compelled to restore his ill- 
gotten Money. — Other Stimulants to Purity. — " Be sure your Sins will find 
you out." — Mental good of Spiritualism. — Lady saved from Insanity by 
her Spirit Son. — Asylums cheated out of Subjects. — Case in Iowa. — Only a 
few Grains. — Spiritualism in a dying Hour. 

Though we may not be able at first sight to see all 
of the good of things newly discovered and developed, 
and sometimes not any of it, yet it is always, proper to 
inquire after the good of any thing that comes to the 
world, more especially those that man seems to have 
some hand in bringing about. It is true that even the 
advocates of new systems can not always tell the good 
that is to grow out of them. When Benjamin Frank- 
lin was questioned as to the good of his electrical ex- 
periments, he confessed that he could not see just 
what good would come from them. Ask our tele- 
graphic operators, or any one who knows anything of 



THE CUI BONO OF SPIRITUALISM. 123 

the workings of the Atlantic cable, and they will tell 
you the good of past experiments with the electric forces. 

It is conceded that a new theory, calculated to sup- 
plant old institutions and not put something better in 
their place, can not work for the benefit of humanity. 
He is a villian who would tear down your house, and 
leave you without shelter in the street. He who 
would persuade you to leave your house for a better 
one, you would class among your best friends. So, 
if Spiritualism has come simply to tear down old in- 
stitutions, and raze the foundations on which society 
is built, and not put something better in their place, 
its work is purely that of an incendiary ; the quicker 
it meets its doom the better for the world. Yet it 
must be remembered that large bodies move slowly. 
" The Pyramids were not built in a day," nor do rev- 
olutions always spring into life and accomplish their 
work in a few weeks. 

It may be that the inquiry the world is now making 
after the good already accomplished by Spiritualism, 
is just a little premature. Though Spiritualism has 
always been in the world, it is not yet a quarter of a 
century since it commenced the work of forcing itself 
upon the public mind as a distinctive religion. It has 
had no standing armies, no political parties to enforce 
its tenets upon the people. It may not, in twenty- 
four years, have accomplished so much good as Chris- 
tianity has in the centuries of its dominion, yet that is 
offset by the fact that it has not done so much evil. 
It has not founded many institutions of learning, 
neither has it produced a Saint Bartholomew's Day, 
where one hundred thousand lives were sacrificed to 
its chief Mogul in a single day. Thus it may not have 



124 THE CONTRAST. 

done as much work as older religions. It takes a new 
phase of faith a long time to get recognition at all, 
and still longer to work its adherents over, and en- 
tirely root out old prejudices, and clear away the ob- 
structions to its work. The ground must be torn up, 
mountains leveled down or tunneled, valleys filled up, 
and much that looks like incendiary work done, before 
railroads can be built. When this work is going on, 
the question as to the good of railroads can not be an- 
swered by pointing to any particular good that one 
has done. 

Notwithstanding Spiritualism is only beginning to 
get ready for operation, not being yet organized and 
harnessed into its work, I know of no Spiritualist who 
is not willing that the question of its cui bono shall 
now be submitted to the world, its works in every 
instance to furnish the answer. 

I know of no better course to pursue in this inves- 
tigation than that adopted by the Judean reformer. 
When John sent word, " Art thou he that should 
come, or do we look for another ? " Jesus said to 
John's agents, " Go and show John again those things 
which ye do hear and see : The blind receive their 
sight, and the lame walk ; the lepers are cleansed, 
and the deaf hear ; the dead are raised up, and the 
poor have the gospel preached to them ; and blessed 
is he whosoever shall not be offended in me." (Matt, 
xi. 3-6.) 

Jesus intended that the divinity of his system of 
religion should be attested by its works. If his logic 
was good, the divinity of any religious system can be 
attested in the same way ; if not, we still want proof 
that the world is better for having Christianity in it. 



THE CUI BONO OF SPIRITUALISM. 125 

In speaking of agitators that were to come into the 
world, Jesus was very careful to instruct his pupils not 
to reject every new religious idea or teacher that should 
arise, — only the false ones were to be rejected ; and 
the rule by which to try them was plain. His advice 
on the subject reads as follows : " Beware of false 
prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but 
inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know 
them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, 
or figs of thistles ? Even so every good tree bringeth 
forth good fruit ; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth 
evil fruit. A good tree can not bring forth evil fruit, 
neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 
Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn 
down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits 
ye shall know them." (Matt. vii. 15-20.) 

That last sentence, " By their fruit ye shall know 
them," is right to the point. I wish people would 
abolish every rule of trying men or their religions, 
except by their fruit. That is as Jesus says : the way 
to try fruit trees, I care not how crooked, knotty, and 
scrubbed a fruit tree may be, if it bears an abundance 
of nice, luscious, healthy fruit, the farmer calls it a 
good tree, and takes care of it. Again, let the tree be 
ever so thrifty, straight, and grand, if it bears no 
fruit, or if its fruit is bitter or tasteless, — if its only 
production is thorns or thistles, it is pronounced a 
" corrupt tree," and cut down and burned. By this 
rule Spiritualists are willing their religion shall be 
tried. If Spiritualism has by this time produced no 
good fruit, though it is hardly old enough to be no- 
ticed as a tree at all, I am willing to help cut it down. 

This, the only course of argument for me to pursue, 



126 THE CONTRAST. 

will make the case turn almost wholly on personal ex- 
periences ; so permit me to record some experiences 
and some personal observations of the experience of 
others. 

When Spiritualism came to me, it came with much 
such an announcement as it did to Saul of Tarsus : 
" I will show him how great things he must suffer for 
my name's sake." (Acts ix. 16.) Spiritualism faith- 
fully warned me that it would yet deprive me of both 
friends and property. Could I at that time have taken 
the full meaning of that prophecy, I now think I 
should have looked back with no small amount of 
hankering for the " leeks and onions of Egypt ; " but 
a partial unbelief was kindly vouchsafed me in this 
time of need. " But," added the good angel, " don't 
let this discourage you ; new friends will soon gather 
around you, and your property will only be bread cast 
upon the waters, — you will gather it again." 

Thus far the angels have been as good as their 
word. No sooner was I compelled ,by conviction to 
renounce the old and take hold of the new than every 
old-time friend was my enemy. Old friends went 
faster than new ones came. One misfortune followed 
another, until I found myself several hundred dollars 
in debt, and not a dollar to pay with. What was to 
be done? One Sunday morning, while residing in 
Milwaukee, my " cruse " not only scraped the bottom 
of the barrel, but it scraped when there was nothing 
there ! There was a wife and four hungry children 
in the house, but not one bite of anything to eat, nor 
as much as five cents in money ! Now I had come to 
my rope's end, what could I do ? The children would 
soon be crying for bread, and no possibility of supply- 



THE CUI BONO OF SPIRITUALISM. 127 

ing, unless by begging or stealing. Kind reader, place 
yourself in that position, and many poor, who now 
rest under your censure, will instead receive your 
pity. It was at this time that I f ally made up my 
mind — well, not exactly to renounce Spiritualism, for 
that can not be done, — but to renounce my work for 
the angels. I said, Spiritualism is true ; but, cui 
bono ? My spirit friends care nothing for me. I have 
given up all for them, — have served them faithfully 
ever since I knew of their existence, and yet they 
care nothing for me, — they would let me starve. To- 
morrow morning I will accept a situation offered me 
in the city, and let Spiritualists and Spiritualism take 
care of themselves. " No," said my best earthly 
friend, "you will not." I went to the post-office and 
found a letter, which I opened, and read as follows : — 

" New York, August 6, 1866. 

" Moses Hull. 

"My Dear Brother: I am impressed that you are 
in great need. Enclosed find my mite. I am very 
busy. Letters must be as brief as telegraphic de- 
spatches. Twenty thousand patients have been ben- 
efited by my magnetism since the first of May. 
" Truly your brother, 

"Dn. J. R. Newton." 

When I took the letter in my hand, for a few mo- 
ments I did not stop to discuss the news contained in 
it. I was busy with another subject. Never, in my 
history, had ten dollars come so opportune, nor were 
words ever more fitly spoken. I reflected as follows : 
Who told the doctor that I had spent my last penny ? 
How did he get the "impression" that I was in 



128 THE CONTRAST. 

44 great need ? " What impulse was that ? Why did 
it happen to move him at that time ? Why was I se- 
lected as the subject? Why does this impression 
manifest such an intelligence and such an interest for 
me ? Is not this the fulfillment of the promise made 
by my spirit friends, 44 Your bread and water shall be 
sure." I there and then resolved to trust the angels, 
and never, under any circumstances, renounce my al- 
legiance to them. At that time the tide turned, and 
that which had flown from me began to flow back. I 
have ever been a poor, stubborn servant of the angels, 
— often a poor tool for them to use, — but have never, 
for one moment, felt to distrust them. 

Now, permit me to invite attention to the news con- 
tained in the letter. " Twenty thousand patients have 
been benefited by my magnetism since the first of May" 
Supposing Spiritualism never has done any good, ex- 
cepting relieving pain. Again : supposing it never 
did any of that, except through the mediumship of 
Dr. Newton. Again: we will suppose they never 
used this one man only during the three months men- 
tioned in this letter ! Even then has not Spiritualism 
done some good in the world ? Nay, have all the doc- 
tors in the city of New York done as much in any 
three months in their lives ? Let me carry this argu- 
ment further. You may throw off ninety per cent, of 
the number of cases that the doctor reported to have 
benefited by his magnetism during the three months 
mentioned in his letter, and then I submit that Spirit- 
ualism comes with better credentials from the angel- 
woiid than any other religion. Go to the poor sufferer, 
tortured with pain and scorched with fever, and ask 
him whether he could see the good of the power that 
9 



THE CUI BONO OF SPIRITUALISM. 129 

would relieve him ? And you have answered the ques- 
tion of the good of Spiritualism. 

There I stopped writing long enough to glance at 
the Springfield Republican, just thrown into my door, 
and the first thing that met my eyes was so appropriate, 
that I yield to the impulse to copy it. Here it is : — 

" The Suicide of ax American Girl in London 
occurred under very sad circumstances, about three 
weeks ago. She drowned herself at Waterloo Bridge, 
and the motives which impelled her to the act are 
vividly set forth in this letter, which she left be- 
hind her : The crime that I am about to commit, and 
what I suffer hereafter, is nothing compared to my 
present misery. Alone in London, not a penny, or a 
friend to advice or lend a helping hand, tired and 
weary with looking for something to do, failing in 
every way, footsore and heart-weary, I prefer death to 
the dawning of another wretched morning. I have 
only been in Britain nine weeks. I came as nursery- 
governess with a lady from America to Wick, in Scot- 
land, where she discharged me, refusing to pay my 
passage back, giving me my wages, £3.10$. After 
my expenses to London, I found myself in this great 
city with only 5s. What was I to do ? I sold my 
watch. The paltry sum I obtained for that soon went 
in paying for my board and in looking for a situation. 
Now I am destitute. Every day is a misery to me. 
No friend, no hope, no money : what is left ? Oh, 
God of heaven, have mercy on a poor, helpless sinner ; 
thou knowest how I have striven against this, but 
fate is against me. I can not tread the path of sin, for 
my dead mother will be watching me. Fatherless, 
motherless, home I have none. Oh, for the rarity of 
9 



130 THE CONTRAST. 

Christian hearts. I am now mad ; for days I have 
foreseen that this would be the end. May all who 
hear of my death forgive me, and may God Almighty 
do so, before whose bar I must soon appear. Fare- 
well to all, to this beautiful and yet wretched world. 
Alice Blanche Oswald. I am twenty years of age 
the 14th of this month." 

Was there ever anything more touching ? " I can 
not tread the path of sin, for my dead mother will be 
watching me." How many thousands have been kept 
from sin by the same watchful care of those on the 
other side ? How kind in that mother to tempt that 
poor, homeless, wandering, orphaned, outcast daugh- 
ter over to the other side ? There was not room for her 
in this world ! No road open for her, except that of 
sin and shame. Let us rejoice that death's door ever 
stands ajar, and the deep waters always welcome 
such guests ! What shall be said of the lady (?) who 
discharged the poor orphan girl in a strange country, 
without paying her enough, so that she could re- 
return to her native land ? Is there blood enough in 
all the animals of the Jewish system, or the saviors 
of all others, to atone for her heinous sins ? One can 
but wish the poor unfortunate had given the name 
and address of the " lady from America." It would 
be well to know what church has the responsibility 
of the salvation of such a soul. 

But I am ahead of my subject. Permit me now, 
under a distinct heading, to discuss the 

TEMPORAL good of spiritualism. 

Dr. J. G. Fish, in his debate with Mr. Dunn, in 
Rochester, N. Y., said, " Under the direction of his 



THE CUI BOKO OF SPIRITUALISM. 131 

father — through Mr. Home as medium — the Czar 
of Russia liberated twenty millions of serfs. Abraham 
Lincoln, under the influence of his spiritual advisers, 
signed the Emancipation Proclamation at Washing- 
ton." 

The above is strictly true. Twenty-four millions 
of men and women, with their offspring, are to-day 
indebted to Spiritualism for their liberty. If liberty 
is a temporal blessing, Spiritualism has come laden 
with such. 

The following I take from the same source. Mr. 
Beck, the gentleman with whom Lizzie Keizer resides, 
and Lizzie herself, have told me the same story. 
Those well acquainted with Miss Keizer, know many 
similar incidents in the history of her mediumship. I 
give it as related by Mr. Fish : — 

" Lizzie Keizer, the medium, passing one day down 
the street, was accompanied by a person whom she 
supposed to be mortal. As they passed a building 
used for public purposes, the individual says to Lizzie, 
' Look on the steps.' There sat an old man, care- 
worn, diseased, starving, and sick. The individual 
says, ' That is my father, but he can not see or hear 
me now.' 'Why,' said Lizzie, ' I thought you was in 
the body.' 'No, I am a spirit; that is my father; he 
wants to go to St. Louis, and wants money to buy 
bread.' Lizzie asked her name. ' My name is Eliza- 
beth.' Lizzie went to the old man, and said, 'You 
are tired, sick, hungry, and want to go to St. Louis.' 
l : That is all true,' said the old man, ' but how did you 
know it ? ' Said Lizzie, ' Your daughter Elizabeth told 
me.' ' My daughter Elizabeth ? Why, my daughter 
Elizabeth has been dead many years.' 4 Yes,' said 



132 THE CONTRAST. 

Lizzie, ' I know that ; but her spirit came along with 
me, and pointed you out to me, and told me all about 
it.' Tears rolled down the old man's cheek. He was 
destitute. The good girl gave him two dollars, all she 
had in the world. He went on his way. I wrote to 
the place where he went, and received a reply from 
the postmaster that he arrived safely, and died a few 
days after his arrival." 

It was five dollars, and that of borrowed money, in- 
stead of two, that Lizzie gave the poor rheumatic suf- 
ferer. Probably the printers made the mistake in 
Mr. Fish's 'account of the matter. However, had it 
been only five cents, it was enough to help the old 
gentleman to his friends to die ; and the test from his 
daughter Elizabeth afforded more pleasure than gold 
or silver could have purchased from the poor sufferer. 
Thousands of such incidents as these can be pointed 
out as a few of the good things resulting from com- 
munion with the world of angels. 

A few personal experiences, under this heading, 
may not be inappropriate. After a somewhat ex- 
tended investigation of the religions of different na- 
tions, including that of the Jews and Christians, I 
concluded that it had been an extensive, if not uni- 
versal custom among ancient nations, for ministers or 
priests to be healers. So, to follow the example of 
the ancients, as well as benefit humanity, I concluded 
I would do the double work of preaching the gospel 
and healing the sick. This I followed more or less 
for several years, with a degree of success that would 
have warranted my continuing the same, could I, in 
justice to myself, have longer carried the double 
burden. In cases of healing by my own hands, if 



THE Cm BONO OF SPIRITUALISM. 133 

there were no other evidence of the good of the 
power which used me, I have found all I need on this 
part of the argument. 

I have no authority to use names in the following 
case, yet I will furnish, for private use, names and 
address of witnesses, if wanted. At a hotel in a 
western city I was introduced to Col. , a gentle- 
man who had no faith in Spiritualism ; but as he had 
but little faith in other religions, and naturally in- 
clined to investigate new things, he attended, and 
manifested a deep interest in my lectures. He came 
into my rooms several times during the week to talk 
over our philosophy. During one of his calls, some- 
thing seemed to say to me, "You can cure his arm." 
I then noticed, for the first time, that his arm was 
useless, and apparently dead. Yet I could not pick 
up the courage to ask the unbelieving colonel to per- 
mit me to treat it. The next day he came to my 
rooms, and said, " I've come to test the virtue and 
power of your spirits. I have one of my awful head- 
aches to-day. Nothing ever has cured my head when 
it commenced aching ; it never quits until it gets its 
ache out." A moment convinced me that I could cure 
him. In five minutes more he was well. Then the 
impression came so strongly that I must work on that 
arm, that I could not resist the impulse to beg the 
privilege. " Certainly," was his reply; " but the arm 
is dead. You may as well go to the graveyard and 
try to manipulate a dead arm there to life. This arm 
has neither sense of feeling nor power of motion. It 
was shot with a poisoned arrow during the Indian war 
in Minnesota. It's a wonder I had not died. Every- 
body else beside me, that was wounded, died. In my 



134 THE CONTRAST. 

case, only this arm died." Feeling a heavy influence 
upon me, I took hold of his withered, helpless hand. 
In a moment I felt a twitching in his fingers. In an- 
other moment the tips of his fingers were covered with 
perspiration. In thirty minutes he had the use of his 
hand and arm ; and in an hour he was holding a com- 
posing-stick in that hand and setting type. This man 
had spent a small fortune in doctoring that hand, and 
received no benefit. 

Now let us suppose there is nothing of Spiritualism 
except the healing of a few otherwise hopeless cases, 
similar to the one mentioned above, is not that enough 
of itself to answer the question as to whether any good 
is to result from the communion established between 
the two worlds ? 

In the village of Allegan, Mich., I once delivered 
one of my most earnest and violent lectures against 
Spiritualism. Fully believing Spiritualism to be im- 
moral in its tendency, I never left an opportunity un- 
improved to warn the people against what I believed 
to be its delusive snares. At the conclusion of the 
lecture, a Spiritualist, with whom I had a passing 
acquaintance, asked me to hear his story, and, if pos- 
sible, harmonize it with my theory. The following is 
the substance of what he related : — 

"Not long since I attended a circle. After several 
interesting communications, a medium, in a deep 
trance, said to me, ' Go out on the street ' (designat- 
ing the place), * and you will find a lady engaged in 
a low conversation with a man. She is needy ; give 
her some money.' I went, and found the lady as di- 
rected, and handed her the amount of money I 
supposed she needed. As soon as she received the 



THE CUI BONO OF SPIRITUALISM. 135 

money, she said, c Sir, you have saved me. This 
amount of money I must have had to-night, or my 
household goods would have been set in the street 
to-morrow morning. I could not pay my rent. I 
was never used to doing business before my husband 
was killed in the war. * Now I am alone in the world, 
and have the care of four helpless children. I have 
tried every honorable means of obtaining a livelihood, 
and failed. I have labored and prayed earnestly for 
some way to open by which I could make an honest 
living ; and now, as a last resort, I had proposals, and 
would have been compelled to sell my virtue for 
money to buy bread for my children and pay my 
rent.' Now, said he, if Spiritualism is evil, and all 
evil, as you represent, how do you account for this, 
and a thousand similar cases ? " 

Sure enough, a few such cases are worth more to 
determine the effects of Spiritualism than all the 
theories in the world. I do not relate this to show 
the moral effect of Spiritualism, as illustrated in the 
salvation of the lady's virtue, for it did not save her 
virtue. I do not regard a lady as having lost her vir- 
tue because external circumstances compel her to sell 
herself to save her children from the poorhouse, any 
more, nor as much, as I regard the lady who marries 
for a home and position in society as being a prosti- 
tute. The salvation in this case consisted, at least in 
part, of a temporal blessing, — the relief of her imme- 
diate wants. In addition to that, she saved herself 
the humiliation of being compelled to surrender her 
ladyhood for a living. 

The Spiritualists of America are aware that the firm 
of William White & Co., of the city of Boston, every 



136 THE CONTRAST. 

week of the world dispense spiritual light and food to 
the multitude through their widely-circulated Banner 
of Light. They may not all be aware that tjiere is 
connected with this publishing-house what they call a 
6 ' bread-fund ; " that the poor can go there at any 
time and get tickets for enough bread to supply their 
immediate necessities. But I often wonder whether 
the hundreds of persons who have been supplied with 
bread from this source, that otherwise must have suf- 
fered, know that they are directly indebted to the spirit- 
world for that supply ? That " bread-fund " originated 
in the spirit-world. The necessity of such a fund, and 
method of operating it, was suggested by a departed 
human spirit, through the mediumship of Mrs. Conant. 
Probably one half of the money that has been contrib- 
uted to sustain it has been given under the direct in- 
fluence, or at the earnest request of departed human 
spirits. Does this look as though Spiritualism had 
come to do any good ? 

I know a medium who owes his life to the fact, that 
the spirits took him by force out of a railroad car, and 
off of the train at the last station, before it collided 
with another, killing several passengers, among whom 
was the one occupying the seat he vacated. Could 
all the passengers have been under the influence of 
such wise and tender guides they might all have been 
saved. Could engineers and conductors all come 
under such power, what a world of accidents could be 
prevented ! This alone would make Spiritualism worth 
more than all the religions of the world. Manj^ such 
cases have occurred. 

A mediumistic engineer, near Eyota, Minn., saw 
the familiar form of an old lady jump on to his train 



THE CUI BONO OF SPIRITUALISM. 137 

in the night. She stood and looked at him for a mo- 
ment, and said, " For God's sake, stop your train!" 
He immediately whistled " down brakes," and got his 
train stopped within about four feet of where the 
track was torn up. He learned the next day that the 
old lady had been in the spirit world only about an 
hour when this occurred. 

When Peter West, a noted medium from Chicago, 
was returning home from the army, he run out of 
money, and got the privilege -of firing from Albany to 
Buffalo. He had never been over the route before. 
Suddenly a spirit came to him, and said, " The bridge 
just around the curve is broken." He said to the 
engineer, " Is there not a bridge just ahead?" On 
being answered that there was, he said, " There is a 
spirit here that tells me to have you stop the train, 
as the bridge is broken down." The train was 
stopped, and scores of lives saved. The railroad 
officers were so grateful that they furnished a pass, 
sending the poor medium to Chicago, and the passen- 
gers attested their gratitude by presenting him a purse 
of money. 

An engineer on the P. Ft. W. & C. R. W., by the 
name of Aimes, a personal acquaintance of the writer, 
stopped and switched his train at Hobart, Ind., in 
obedience to a spirit command, just in time to save a 
collision with a late train from Chicago. 

Father Lindsley, at Rural, Ohio, started to meeting 
one night, but was commanded by spirits to go back, 
as his house was on fire. He turned, and hastened 
home, just as the flames were bursting up from coals 
that had fallen on the floor. He saved his house by 
spirit direction. 



138 THE CONTRAST. 

An entranced medium, in the city of Worcester, 
Mass., handed me two dollars, stating that I would 
meet a barefooted little girl, and I might get her a pair 
of shoes with it. The same evening, the 8th of 
March, 1864, I met a little barefooted beggar girl in 
the city of Lynn, who said, " Please sir, give me five 
cents to buy a candle with ; my pa is dead, and my 
ma is sick, and we have no milk for the babe." I 
opened my pocket-book to give the child five cents, 
when I noticed that two-dollar bill lying by itself ; it 
brought the spirit message to my mind. I then no- 
ticed that the child was barefooted, although it was 
snowing. I handed her, in addition to the five cents 
with which to buy a candle, the two-dollar bill. Said 
she, " Are you going to give me all of this ? " " Yes," 
said I; "it is all yours." "Oh, goodie, goodie, 
goodie ! " said she, " I have enough to buy a pair of 
shoes." Reader, that little girl, for the first time in 
many months, was happy then ; and I never felt so well 
over an agency in my life, as in the fact, that I had 
been the agent to carry that two dollars to that little 
girl. Daes Spiritualism come with temporal blessings 
in its hands ? 

I personally know of more than a dozen useful 
inventions, given by the spirits, that have been pa- 
tented. The artesian well of Chicago, and more than 
a score of oil wells in Pennsylvania, were located by 
spirits. Lost wills, deeds, property, and people have 
been found, and stolen money discovered and re- 
covered by spirits ; and yet people say, cui bono ? 

Permit me now to enter upon the investigation of 
the 



THE CUI BONO OF SPIRITUALISM. 139 



MOEAL GOOD 

resulting from Spiritualism. For the argumentative 
part of this division of the subject, I will refer the 
reader to a former volume,* and to former parts of this 
work. I will here only relate a short dialogue, and a 
few incidents. 

Not long since, a gentleman in one of Indiana's 
leading towns, who had recently renounced Metho- 
dism, and taken hold of Spiritualism, asked me to go 
and spend the night with him. Said he, " I don't 
know how my wife will treat you ; she is very bitter 
in her opposition to Spiritualism, but has consented to 
have you spend a night and a day in our house. I 
hope you will do her some good." 

I found the lady, as announced by her husband, 
very bitter in her opposition, and violent in her lan- 
guage. I tried to reason with her that night and the 
next morning, but to no purpose. After her husband 
had gone to his work, she came into my room, bathed 
in tears, and said, " Mr. Hull, please do not lead my 
husband further on the road to ruin. Only just think ; 
one year since, he was a respectable man, and a class- 
leader in the Methodist church ! " Said I, " You 
must not think Spiritualism is leading everybody to 
hell, because your husband has become a bad man 
from his connection with it. Evil will work out ; 
and your husband's evil would have come to light in 
some other way if he had not become a Spiritualist." 
Our dialogue then assumed about the following 
form : — 

* Question Settled, pp. 40-45, published by William White & 
Co., Boston. Price $1.50. Postage 16 cents. 



140 THE CONTRAST. 

Lady. My husband's evil, did you say? Sir, I 
want you to understand that he is not a bad man. 

Hull. Oh, I misunderstood you ! I had supposed, , 
from what I had learned in the village, that he was a 
good man ; but your representations had changed my 
mind. You tell of the high and respectable position 
from which he has fallen : I inferred that Spiritualism 
had made him bad. 

Lady. In a certain sense it has ; but then he does 
not do any really criminal things. 

Hull. He is not so good a husband as he was when 
he became a Spiritualist, is he ? 

Lady. Well, if it is any of your business, he is as 
good. There never was a better husband in the world 
than mine. 

Hull. But is he a good father ? Does he provide 
well for his children ? Does he treat them well ? 

Lady. Why, his children are seemingly his idols ; 
no father could treat his children better than he treats 
his. If anything, he is not so rigid with them as 
when he belonged to the church. 

Hull. I am really glad he is as good a husband 
and father as in his Christian days ; there are, accord- 
ing to that, two relations in which Spiritualism has 
not spoiled him. The fact of his not being so good a 
neighbor as in former times, may be accounted for on 
the ground that the prejudice of his neighbors against 
Spiritualism may have caused them to treat him dif- 
ferently from what they did before his change of sen- 
timent. 

Lady. But he is as good a neighbor as he ever 
was. Spiritualism has not injured him in the least in 
that respect, 



THE CUI BONO OF SPIRITUALISM. 141 

Hull. It has not? Well, if Spiritualism has not 
injured him as a husband, father, or neighbor, please 
tell me what injury it has done him ? Is he not as 
good a Christian as ever ? 

Lady. So far as doing his duty by everybody and 
thing by which he is surrounded is concerned, he is ; 
otherwise he is not. 

Hull. In what sense is he not a Christian ? 

Lady. Why, he would prefer to spend his Sun- 
days in the fields, or woods, or reading old Davis's 
books, or, sometimes I think even fishing or hunting, 
rather than going to the church, where in former days 
he took such delight. 

Hull. I see the point. He prefers to go into 
God's great library and read the bibles God printed on 
all nature, to reading a man-made book, that you call 
the Bible. He prefers to read the writings of A. J. 
Davis, rather than to attend the church. His crime is 
against the Methodist ministry and church. That is 
unpardonable. Now, if you will show me that he has 
sinned against God or nature, I will try to point out 
to him the error of his ways. 

Lady. I do not claim that he is a great sinner ; I 
only claim that I don't want Spiritualism to ruin my 
family. 

Hull. Is your family on the verge of ruin ? I am 
sorry. 

Lady. O, I don't know as it is ; but I did tell him, 
when he began to attend circles and talk about Spirit- 
ualism, that I would not live with him if he em- 
braced it. 

Hull. That is the way Spiritualism ruins families. 
One party embraces it, and the other says, I won't 



142 THE CONTEAST. 

live with you unless I can dictate you in matters of 
religious opinion. Now he does not object to your 
being a Methodist : if you will be as liberal as he, all 
will be well. When I commenced this conversation, 
I expected to find your husband a bad man ; instead, I 
find you a very illiberal, sectarian woman, chagrined be- 
cause he will not permit you to take charge of his con- 
science. Permit me to say here, that in every case 
where I have attempted to investigate the evils of 
Spiritualism, I have, instead of finding it evil, found a 
petty tyrant trying to dictate a course of life to an- 
other. You have no more right to dictate your hus- 
band's faith to him, or call him a bad man because he 
will not throw away his judgment for yours, than you 
have to dictate when and what he shall eat or drink, 
or when he shall rest or sleep. 

Suffice it to say that this conversation put her on a 
new train of thought, which culminated in her inves- 
tigating her husband's character from a different stand- 
point; also, in her indorsing the very reading and 
preaching that she condemned her husband for study- 
ing, including even what she had designated as " Old 
Davis's works." In a majority of cases where we hear 
charges of the immoral tendency of Spiritualism, an in- 
vestigation brings the same result. 

Not many years since I had a talk with the presi- 
dent of a Spiritualist society in one of our principal 
cities. I spoke of my full belief that the tendency of 
Spiritualism was toward, and not from, morality. He 
said, " I am a partial illustration of what Spiritualism 
can do ; I tell you, because you can use it for the bene- 
fit of others and the advancement of the cause. I in- 
herited from my father an appetite for intoxicating 



THE CUI BONO OF SPIRITUALISM. 143 

drink. I was drunk before I was six years old, and 
every opportunity between that and the time I was 
thirty-six. I never paid any attention to Spiritualism, 
or thought anything of it, but effectually tried the 
other religions, and the doctors, and about everything 
else of the age, to cure me of my ungovernable appe- 
tite for intoxicating liquors. All proved of no effect ; 
my money, the use of my brains, my happiness, and 
that of my family, were all exhausted. I would have 
traded my last pair of boots for soul and body poison- 
ing alcohol. 

" 1 was in this condition when a series of Spiritual 
meetings were being conducted in this city. The 
lecturer, one of the most popular lady lecturers we 
ever had, on returning home from meeting on Sunday, 
received a request from one of her spirit guides to go 
into a drinking saloon and take me out. My mother 
had requested this spirit to do this work. Though 
her friends, many of them leading Spiritualists, pro- 
tested against this act, she went into the saloon, found 
me, more than half drunk, and though I was an entire 
stranger to her she took me home, preached to me, 
magnetized me, put me under spirit power, and took 
from me that inherited appetite for intoxicating 
liquors. Though that was near seven years since, 
from that day to this no intoxicating drink of any 
kind has ever touched my lips."" 

This man lived six years longer, a sober, honest, in- 
dustrious, and with the exception of his Spiritualism, 
a resjiectable man. As long as he could speak his lips 
praised the religion that had prepared him for the 
better world. Among his last requests was the one 
that a Spiritualist should preach at his funeral, and use 



144 THE CONTRAST. 

the victories he had obtained as an evidence of the 
good of getting in communication with our ascended 
brethren. This case is only a sample. There are 
hundreds like it in many particulars. Say, do such 
things prove Spiritualism to be a temporal and moral 
blessing? The name of the individual above men- 
tioned, and the names and addresses of witnesses can 
be given by application to the author of this volume. 

I personally know of several other cases of a similar 
kind. An old man in Wisconsin was saved, and ef- 
fectually cured of the habit of intoxication by his son, 
who had been killed in the army, appearing from time 
to time to him in the drinking saloon, entreating him 
not to drink, sometimes knocking a well-filled glass 
out of his hand, and finally bringing him under an in- 
fluence by which he controlled his appetite. A man 
in Chicago was saved in the same way by the return 
of a spirit daughter who gave him a prescription, the 
use of which cured him of the disease called " common 
drunkard." Only this morning an incident was related 
to me, by a responsible party, of an 'nveterate chewer 
and smoker of tobacco, being saved from that useless 
and filthy habit by the spirits causing tobacco to make 
him sick. This was the last resort : all other means 
had failed. 

A man who is now one of our best Spiritualistic 
writers, thirty years since, when a respectable member 
of a church, paid his fare on a steamboat ; the clerk, 
by mistake, handed him in change two five -dollar 
bills instead of one. His first thought was, I will re- 
turn the extra bill ; after that he reflected that the 
steamboat company was rich and he was poor; he 
would keep the bill ; the company would never miss 



THE CUI BONO OF SPIRITUALISM. 145 

it, and certainly there could be no harm in his taking 
the advantage of that circumstance. Thus his con- 
science was eased, and he kept the money near twenty 
years, until he became a medium. As soon as he came 
en rapport with the spirit world, he was told of that 
stain on his soul, and no rest was given him, day or 
night, until he went to the company and paid them 
that money with the interest. No atonement — noth- 
ing but integrity, strict, unswerving fidelity to justice, 
could avail in his case. If every pretended Christian 
in the world could to-day exchange his imputed 
righteousness for such an influence, the world would 
stand morally higher than it does. Why should not 
Spiritualism lead to a higher and purer life ? It ever 
approaches man's best faculties, always appealing to 
the very highest social qualities of his nature. Even 
admitting that your very best friends in the spirit 
world are not with you, the thought entertained by 
Spiritualists that they are, will have much the same 
effect as though they were present. Spiritualists 
generally believe that their spirit friends are with 
them, watching and guarding, pleased with their ef- 
forts to rise in the scale of purity, and grieved with 
their violations of the principles of rectitude — that 
their most secret thoughts are read by their spirit 
friends as readily as an expert would read an open 
book. This is not all : the commission of sin envelopes 
the sinner in an atmosphere of sin that can -be seen, 
tasted, and /eft by every sensitive medium with whom 
he comes in contact. 

Spiritualists do not believe that there are or can be 
any secrets. They believe that every stone, to the 
one who can read, tells how it was made ; that every 
10 



146 THE CONTRAST. 

tree of the forest tells of every dry or wet season 
through which it passed ; that knots and scars tell to 
the reader, of accidents which occurred a century 
since ; so they claim that even your sins will find you 
out. It will be impossible to flee from either your 
sins or their scars. This world and the other will 
read them all; that the final and total consequence 
of sin must fall upon the one who commits it; nothing 
can step in between the act and the actor. Believing 
this, will they not be more inclined to try to live stain- 
less lives ? I believe the history of Spiritualists and 
Spiritualism will, when fairly written, show such to 
be the fact. The thought of being surrounded by the 
pure and good, must lead to thoughts and acts of the 
same kind. 

" With a slow and noiseless footstep 
Come the messengers divine, 
Take the vacanj chair beside me, 
Lay their gentle hands in mine. 

"And they sit and gaze upon me, 
With those deep and tender eyes, 
Like the stars, so still, and saint-like, 
Looking downward from the skies. 

" Uttered not, yet comprehended, 
Is the spirit's voiceless prayer 
Soft wishes in blessings ended, 
Breathing from their lips of air." 

THE MENTAL GOOD 

Growing out of Spiritualism can not, in this short 
chapter, be told. It has, in almost every case, de- 
veloped and quickened the mental powers of its 
mediums, not only so, but its soothing power is be- 
yond computation. Among the instances of the men- 
tal soothing effects of Spiritualism only two will be 



THE CUI BONO OF SPIRITUALISM. 147 

told. The first I give in substance as related to me 
by witnesses, the second came under my own observa- 
tion. 

A young man in Chicago persuaded his widowed 
mother to let him go to the war. When she gave her 
consent, she urged upon him the immediate necessity 
of embracing Christ, as his new perils would render 
his life more precarious and uncertain than ever be- 
fore. His response was, " Mother, I would if but for 
your sake if I could, but as I have often told you, I 
am unfortunate in my organization ; I can not believe 
in your religion." Thus he went to the war an unre- 
generated infidel. He fell in his first engagement 
with the enemy. When the telegraph flashed the 
news back to the old Christian lady, that her son was 
killed, she exclaimed, "My hoy is in hell! He did 
not believe in Christ ; he was a good boy but not a 
Christian : I must go to hell with my child ; I could 
not leave him in that horrid place alone. No, a moth- 
er's love will follow her son there ; I will go with my 
child." 

Her minister told her that her son was a good boy, 
and tried to persuade her that he was not in hell. He 
had,died in his country's cause. In an hour of peril like 
this, the cause of the country was next to the cause 
of Christ; there was hope for her son. All this argu- 
ment was wasted on the old lady ; she had drank deeply 
of the doctrines of the church. She argued logically, 
too ; that her son had died out of Christ, and hence 
exposed to hell. The church had no consolation for 
her ; she became partially insane, and it was only by 
the most vigilant and patient watchfulness that she 
was kept from committing suicide, in order, as she said, 



148 THE CONTRAST. 

to join her boy in hell. At last, after a great deal of 
persuading, she was induced to visit a test medium. 
Soon her son came, but unable to control much, gave 
place to his father, who related the circumstances of 
the boy's death, and told of his condition in the spirit 
world, giving her new light with regard to both hell 
and heaven. This interesting seance was concluded 
by inviting the old lady to visit another medium, giv- 
ing the name and place, and informing her that it was 
probable that her son could control the medium. The 
taste she had got was enough to cause the old lady 
to long for more. She visited the other medium, and 
got tests from her own dear boy. This of course was 
followed by other manifestations, resulting in her com- 
plete emancipation from the church and its dogmas. 
The result was, she became calm and even happy. 
Her mind was restored to its balance, and the lunatic 
asylum cheated out of a victim. 

Was this good ? Every other help had been sought, 
and failed. No arm was found strong enough to res- 
cue this old lady, except Spiritualism. There are 
thousands in the asylums to-day who have gone there 
from similar causes to that which come so near sending 
this old lady into a lunatic's cell. Let us extol the 
religion that would make even insane retreats houses 
of praise. 

The only remaining incident to which I would re- 
fer, happened in Iowa. An ordinarily good man, in 
the heat of political controversy, became offended at 
something said, and swore he would have the life of 
the offender. Dfiring a fit of insanity, caused by in- 
toxication, he undertook to execute his threat, and lost 
his life in the attempt. The man's brother, who was 



THE CTTI BONO OF SPIRITUALISM. 149 

a minister, said, "My brother was a wicked man. 
He was a drunkard, and died with murder in his heart. 
My brother is in hell ; I know he is." He went to the 
newly-made widow, even while her husband's corpse 
was yet in the house, and said, " I would not have a 
funeral sermon ; no minister can do his duty without 
telling you your husband is suffering the eternal burn- 
ings." The lady became distracted, and at times per- 
fectly insane. The church had no consolation for her ; 
even the Universalists could not console her ; their 
theories seemed so much like hypotheses that their 
words had no effect. About sixteen miles from where 
this happened there lived a medium. Suddenly an 
irresistible influence came to him, and he ran as 
straight as a bee-line to the widow ; he jumped fences 
and walls, ran through swamps and creeks, and scaled 
steep hills, letting nothing swerve him from his course, 
or purpose after he got there. When he reached the 
lady's house he demanded to see her ; and though all 
regarded him as crazy, he was granted a private inter- 
view. What he said or did is not definitely known to 
outsiders, but one thing is known : the distracted lady 
became calm and cheerful ; she said she had heard from 
her husband ; that he was working out his own salva- 
tion on the other side, as he would have been com- 
pelled to have done on this, had he staid here. 
She found in the spirit world .itself the consolation 
which could not be furnished by any of the religions 
by which she was surrounded. 

I have now gone through an entire chapter, picking 
up here a grain and there a grain of good that has 
come from Spiritualism. I would not represent this as 
the harvest of good to be reaped, as the result of the 



150 THE CONTRAST. 

new religion. These are a few of the specimens only 
which have been gathered from "wayside gleanings.' ' 
The great Spiritual mines are filled with such and 
better. "Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, 
neither hath it entered into the heart of man to con- 
ceive the things Spiritualism has provided for the 
world." 

The great boon of all, the one needed when no 
other can reach the case, is the consolation it affords to 
those about to exchange worlds. The fear of death is 
gone ! The fires of hell have been extinguished T 
The walls are taken down from the celestial city ! 
The ivory or golden throne is removed, and flowers 
planted on the spot it occupied ! Its God is not a ty- 
ranical king, with a crown upon his head and a scowl 
on his face, but a loving father and mother ever look- 
ing after the welfare and comfort of all the children ! 
The dying Spiritualist knows he is not to be forced 
millions of miles away from those in whom he has an 
interest ; he is not going away, but remains to bless 
and be blessed by those yet on earth's side of death's 
river. O, may the blessed consolations of Spiritualism 
cheer both reader and writer in the hour of dissolution ! 



MINOR QUESTIONS. 151 



CHAPTER VI. 



MINOR QUESTIONS. 

Asking and answering Questions, the difference. — Can not answer every Ques- 
tion. — Spiritualism necessarily crude at first. — May be modified. — How do 
Spirits operate ? — Their Power over the Will. — Does Mediumship indicate 
a weak Mind. — The controlling- Spirit not necessarily with the Medium. — 
Author's Experiments. — Spirits control more than One at a time. — Some- 
times control without knowing- it. — A. J. Davis and Professor Vaughan. — 
"Arabia" and "Human Nature." — E. D. Keene gives a Communication 
from a Man yet on Earth. — Why do Spirits lie ? — Fault often in the Medi- 
um. — Psychological Experiments. — Cause of Failure. — Reason why some 
get better Tests than others. — Why do not all Mediums give Tests. — Tests 
not always from personal Friends. — Psychology and Spiritualism. — All are 
Mediums. — David and his Mediums. — Philosophy of Dark Circles. — Bibli- 
cal Manifestations in the Dark. — The Explanation. — Morality of Spiritual- 
ism. — Mediumship a Quickener. — Spiritualism and Sunshine. — Webster, 
Clay, et al., whittled down. — The Explanation. — How to receive Spiritual- 
ism. — Why so many Indian Spirits. — The Indian Element positive. — Be- 
longs in this Country. — Better Magnetizers. — More easily imitated Hum- 
bugs and the Self-deceived. — Experience of the Author. — Where are the 
Ancients. — Reasons why they do not return. — What Good can Spiritualism 
do? — For what should we goto Spirits. — Demonstrates a Future. — What 
will Science do ? — Spiritual Sense. — Immortality Triumphant. 



This chapter I design as an answer to the ever 
recurring questions concerning the modus operandi of 
many of the spirit manifestations. Nearly everything 
that I shall say here will be said by the request of 
individuals who have handed in questions which they 
wished answered in the present volume. 

Asking questions is an easy matter. Answering 
them is sometimes a hard one. Questions are gener- 
ally based on the ignorance of the one who asks ; 



152 THE CONTRAST. 

answers, if correct, are always based on the knowl- 
edge of the one answering ; and as there is so much 
more that we do not know than that we do know, it 
can not be expected that any one can throw all the 
light on any department of any subject that can be 
desired. I have classified the questions received dur- 
ing the last few months, and propose to answer such, 
and only such, as seem to have been asked in a spirit 
of candid inquiry. Those asked for strife and illegiti- 
mate contention will not be noticed. 

It can not be expected that in a book of no greater 
dimensions than I design to make this, written to 
elicit the attention of those who would not touch a 
heavier volume, every objection can be met, and every 
question answered. I do not design to do that, yet 
there are hundreds of honest people in the world, 
who only need an explanation of a few " whys " and 
"wherefores," to enable them to see the most perfect 
harmony between the philosophy and phenomena of 
modern Spiritualism. For the benefit of such this 
chapter is written. 

Every theory of philosophy or religion is necessarily 
crude and undigested at the first ; but potent and per- 
severing investigation will lead to the discovery of 
truth. If Spiritualists, as they are led to more thor- 
oughly and critically examine their system, should in 
many instances be induced to modify it somewhat, it 
would be no more than others have done. My hope 
is that Spiritualists will be more swift to re-shape, re- 
mold, re-make, or retract extravagant views, than 
have been their orthodox neighbors. It is much bet- 
ter to turn a coat, which in haste was put on wrong, 
than to obstinately refuse to adjust a garment because 



MINOR QUESTIONS. 153 

your friend, or even an enemy discovered the mistake 
before it was discovered by yourself ; so, if, in answer- 
ing questions, I should prune Spiritualism of some of 
its excrescences, let no Spiritualist tremble lest I 
should fell the tree. Spiritualism has a strong hold 
of life, and can endure harder thrusts than my poor 
pen could give it if I were disposed to write it down. 
I only intend to cut away a few of the thorns and this- 
tles, so that the spiritual tree can live a tamer, sweet- 
er life, and bear " much fruit." The deliciousness of 
which certainly would be marred if the work were left 
undone. " What is the chaff to the wheat, saith the 
Lord." 

QUERY NO. 1. 

How do spirits get into media, and what becomes 
of the medium spirit while the organism is being con- 
trolled by another? 

Answer. It has been supposed that spirits control 
by getting into the physical system of the medium. 
Even Bible Spiritualists supposed that spirits entered 
into media. Ezekiel says, several times, that " The 
spirit entered into me." Mediums and spirits often 
speak in the same way. The trut 1 is, spirits can, and 
often do, as I will demonstrate, control, without know- 
ing how they do it. The idea of spirits entering into 
the mediums is a mistake. Spirits do not enter into 
the media, but control them by coming into psycholog- 
ical rapport with them, as the psychologist controls his 
subject. A psychologist enters into his subject in every 
sense of the word that a spirit does into his. They 
each control by will power alone ; the will, the mind, 
and spirit of the subject become negative, and yield 
to the positive power of the operator. The volunta- 



154 THE CONTRAST. 

ry organs of every living creature are controlled by 
the creature ; so when the operator gets control of 
the will of the subject, he, through that will, controls 
the physical organism. He may thus, when the con- 
trol is perfect, enable the subject to speak any lan- 
guage he himself understands, or tell anything which 
he himself could tell. This control of a subject by an 
operator in the form, is real and spiritual, as much as 
any spirit control ; the only difference being that one 
operator is clothed in flesh and blood, and the other 
is not. 

QUERY NO. 2. 

In that case is it not the weaker mind that is con- 
trolled by the stronger ? 

Answer. No ; not necessarily. There is a difference 
between strength of mind and strength of will. A 
weak mind may accompany a strong will, and a strong 
mind a weak will ; but neither the mind nor the will 
of the medium is necessarily weak. Mediumship im- 
plies the power to hold still and catch the positive 
influence that may be at work ; . " only this and no'th- 
ing more." A state of sound sleep is as strong evi- 
dence of a weak mind, or weak will, as can be found 
in mediumship. Mediumship signifies the power to 
become passive, negative, quiet. Strong minds may 
sometimes pass into that condition more readily than 
weak ones ; yet as strong minds are more liable to be 
positively engaged in some positive work, they may 
not always be so receptive as minds not so active. 
Large spirituality, with a disposition to approach the 
intellectual through the intuitional, rather than the 
spiritual through the intellectual, would perhaps ren- 
der a person a better subject for influences. 



MINOR QUESTIONS. 155 

QUERY NO. 3. 

Are spirits necessarily present when they control 
mediums ? 

Answer. I think I have proof that they are not 
always within a few feet of the one controlled. I 
am personally acquainted with the fact of a spirit 
going into a circle, and through a medium who knew 
nothing of the subject of astronomy, giving a very in- 
teresting lecture on that subject. The same night, at 
the same hour, the same spirit purported to control 
another medium more than two hundred miles distant, 
and gave the same lecture. It might here be added, 
that this spirit had controlled each of these mediums 
on former occasions. I have myself, after psychologi- 
cally controlling subjects, exercised a positive control 
over them when they were many miles away. I have 
made two mediums at the same time dream out the 
description of the scenery on the Hudson River as it 
passed before my eyes, as I passed up the river on a 
beautiful moonlight night, neither of the mediums at 
the time being within three hundred miles. These 
thoughts of course suggest 

QUERY NO. 4. 

Can spirits control more than one medium at a 
time ? 

Answer. Yes, most emphatically. Who has not 
seen speakers control whole audiences? Go to any 
protracted revival meeting, when in the height of its 
glory, and see how the audience can be swayed by its 
leader or leaders. This control is spiritual, and yet is 
often effected not only without the operator's having 



156 THE CONTRAST. 

a knowledge of the modus operandi, but in many cases 
without his even having a knowledge of the fact of 
his control over the audience. 

Many suppose they know a good deal of Spiritual- 
ism ; but the truth is we are as yet hardly into its al- 
phabet. I am convinced that spirits often control, and 
enable mediums to deliver eloquent discourses, with- 
out even themselves knowing they are exercising any 
control over the mediums. I have several times, 
when I have been thinking on a particular theme, 
met friends who, after exchanging a few preliminary 
compliments, would of their own accord enter into 
conversation, taking up the very thread of my 
thoughts, and in a few instances, upon questioning the 
parties, I learned that they never before entered into 
a conversation on that particular subject. What was 
this but a positive influence passing from mind to 
mind, which, if I had been out of the body, might 
have been called a spirit communication. 

Several peculiar circumstances now occur to my 
mind, which will serve to throw light on some of the 
laws governing mediumship. 

1. It will be remembered that A. J. Davis once 
gave the world some thoughts which were handed 
him from the higher spheres, on the philosophy of rain 
and the manner of producing it. About the same 
time Professor Vaughan came out with a lecture on 
the same subject, embodying the same ideas. Mr. 
Davis was accused of plagiarism. I fully believe that 
Mr. Davis was in this and all other instances honest, 
and that his thoughts came as he reported. Yet I 
can not see why the lecture may not have originated 
with Professor Vaughan. Why not? The positive 



MINOR QUESTIONS. 157 

thoughts originated in Mr. Vaughan's brain, or passing 
through it from a higher source, reached Mr. Davis, 
and he was sufficiently negative to catch them, and 
fasten them on paper. The medium attracts the 
thoughts sent out by positive minds, in many instan- 
ces without the sender knowing it. As the earth to- 
night drinks the rain which falls upon it, so very 
many mediums are sponges which absorb and give 
out again the thought that comes in their reach. 

2. Not many years since " Arabula," a book of 
great merit, was produced through the mediumship 
of A. J. Davis, but the readers of " Human Nature," 
a magazine published in London, know that at the 
same time the same thought, and sometimes the same 
words, for page after page, were being published in 
Europe. The magazine above referred to, in the 
year 1868, I think it was, placed many paragraphs 
from the two works in juxtaposition, thus illustrating 
that they were essentially the same. Now, who pla- 
giarized ? I answer, no one. The thoughts which 
some one, who was sufficiently sensitive, caught as 
they passed through the old world, were caught by 
Mr. Davis when they came here, and perhaps in 
neither instance did the one who gave off these 
thoughts realize that they were contagious, or knew 
anything about these men catching them. If this idea 
should prove to be a truth (and it will), will we not 
all try to be more careful even of our secret thoughts, 
for they go out as positive entities, to work on the 
sensitives or mediums. 

3. I have never met a better test medium than 
Edwin D. Keene, of Philadelphia ; but in giving tests 
in the city of Washington, in April, 1870, this medi- - 



158 THE CONTRAST. 

urn said, " There is a spirit here who says his name 

is [The names I do not remember.] He wishes 

to talk to . He says he wronged yon once ; he 

feels badly about it, and that he can not progress 
nntil he confesses it, and obtains your forgiveness. " 
He then proceeded to give the particulars of their 
difficulty, containing several remarkable tests, after 
which he again asked forgiveness for the great wrong 
he had done. The man, after telling the spirit that 
he was forgiven, responded that all was true, but he 

did not know that was dead ; the last known of 

him was that he lived in Providence, R. I. A tele- 
gram was sent to Providence the next day, and the 
facts were all found to be true, except that the man 
was at that time alive and well. Now, how is this ? I 
know of no explanation only that the medium came 
en rapport with the acts and thoughts of that individu- 
al ; these acts and thoughts representing themselves 
as positive entities. If this is the true philosophy of 
mediumship, a spirit can as easily influence a dozen at 
a time as one. The power is not so much in spirit, as 
in the number of receptive individuals who come into 
his sphere. Who has not seen psychologists influence 
a dozen at a time, — sometimes making one believe 
that he was a minister, another that he was a desper- 
ate sinner, who needed salvation, and so on almost ad 
infinitum ? 

QUERY NO. 4. 

Why do spirits so often tell that which is not true ? 

Answer. I doubt whether spirits often indulge in 
telling willful falsehoods. The communications prov- 
ing to be false are usually either deceptions on the 



MINOR QUESTIONS. 159 

part of the medium, a reflection from the mind of 
those to whom the communication is made, or the 
result of an imperfect control. The best that can be 
done, a spirit can not always make a medium speak 
the truth. During the last half score of years I have 
had a very extended experience as a psychological 
operator, which has enabled me to look with more 
charity on the false in phenomenal Spiritualism than 
in former days. I have learned that, do . the best I 
can, it is impossible to find a medium that can always 
be made to speak the truth. They can often be made 
to talk eloquently, and sometimes logically, but no 
one can be made to always talk truthfully. Let one 
case suffice as an illustration. As I have not the priv- 
ilege of using names, allow me to supply their place 
with blanks. At a large dinner party in an eastern 
city, I once introduced a conversation on the wonders 
of psychology, when I was requested to produce some 
experiments. There was present in the room a Miss 
D., whom I had previously put under psychological 
control, and found as good as any subject I had ever 
seen. After obtaining her consent she was placed en 
rapport with my own spirit, and then requested to 
give tests of various kinds, which she did with aston- 
ishing success. She was thoroughly blindfolded, and 
in that condition could read any sentence brought 
before my eyes, tell anything I could have told, and 
even at our request look through solid walls, and tell 
what was going on in other rooms of the house. 
Finally the lady of the house led her to the pictures 
on the wall, and notwithstanding her eyes were close- 
ly bandaged, she correctly described every one, and 
told who every painting or photograph was made to 



160 THE CONTRAST. 

represent. But this state of things was not to con- 
tinue. While in the height of our success, she was 
led to a large portrait of a former husband of the lady 
who led her. " Who is that ? " said the lady. " That 
is your brother," responded the clairvoyant. " A mis- 
take," said the lady; " look again." After a mo- 
ment's hesitation and a little closer observation, she 
responded, "It is your brother." All this time I 
used all of my will power to make her say husband. 
Finally I spoke in a positive tone of voice, and said, 
" Miss D., that is Mrs. H.'s husband." " Why," said 
she, " is not Mr. H. her husband?" "Yes," I re- 
sponded ; " but this is the first husband, who is now 
in the world of spirits." 

" Well," said she, " the first thought came husband ; 
but when I saw Mr. H. standing by my side, I could 
not say husband, I was compelled to say brother." 

Now, what was this? I supposed the medium to 
be entirely unconscious ; but the facts were, that some 
latent power of her brain was all the time reasoning 
on the impossibility of the lady having two husbands, 
and the idea of a very near relative was thrown on 
the mind, and hence she said, brother. Now, had I 
been in the spirit world, and influenced that medium 
as I did, she would probably have made the same 
mistake, and then I, as a spirit, would have been 
accused of lying, when in reality it would have been 
impossible for me to have made my medium tell the 
truth. The laws controlling mediumship are very 
subtle, and as yet only partially understood. A more 
thorough understanding of them may teach us to be 
cautious about accusing our risen friends of deliber- 
ately telling that which is not true* 



MINOR QUESTIONS. 161 

While spirits control media by will power alone, 
we should not be astonished if the will of those form- 
ing the circle may partially spoil an otherwise good 
and true communication. One thing has been noticed, 
that is, that some persons get more truthful communi- 
cations than others. The reason of this is, their mind 
or will is in a condition to permit spirits to more prop- 
erly represent themselves than they can do in the 
presence of others. 

QTJEEY NO. 8. 

Why can not all mediums give names, dates, and 
other tests ? 

Answer. Spirits have ever been more ready in an- 
swering questions of a philosophic character than 
those of a test nature. The reason I understand to be 
this. Questions of a philosophic nature are usually 
out of the reach of the mediums, hence their mind 
can not so easily become active on them, as on ques- 
tions containing tests. When a test question is asked, 
many mediums instantly fear they will fail to answer. 
This fear renders them so positive that the spirit can 
not approach them with the answer. I am not one 
who believes that every one in the spirit world can 
return and communicate. I doubt whether all or 
half that have gone to the spirit world can manifest 
through media at all. I do not believe that one test 
spirit manifestation in twenty comes directly from the 
spirit giving the test. I know that no more than 
one in twenty whom we meet in every-day life would 
succeed as practical psychologists ; it is reasonable to 
suppose that those who could not psychologize a per- 
son in earth life, would not do it in spirit life. Of 
11 



162 THE CONTRAST. 

course this suggests the query, How do the spirit 
manifestations come ? I answer, I have many times 
seen persons put under psychologic control, and then 
the operator put en rapport with persons in the room, 
who, under ordinary circumstances could not have 
controlled the subject. Yet all the while the opera- 
tor kept supreme control, and others were by his will 
brought into and driven out of communication with 
the subject. So in spirit control. Each medium is 
surrounded with his or her spirit guides, who may, for 
the benefit of friends on either side of the river of 
death, serve in connection with the medium, as a con^ 
necting link between the two parties. Now take into 
consideration the peculiarities of the medium, then the 
peculiarities of the control by which he may be sur- 
rounded, and that all these peculiarities must in cases 
of test be overcome, and any one can see how diffi- 
cult it may be to always give tests, and yet how easy 
it may be to give discourses where the power control- 
ling has only his own thoughts to utter. 

QUERY NO. 9. 

Why can not all be mediums and see spirits ? 

Answer. There is a sense in which all are medi- 
ums. Paul says, " But the manifestation of the spirit 
is given to every man to profit withal." (1 Cor. xii. 
7.) Every one who has a spirit, has something that 
can come en rapport with spirit. Hence all are medi- 
ums, though all may not have that one gift of seeing. 
In Paul's enumeration of the gifts, in the above men- 
tioned chapter, he has them as follows : — 

1. The Word of Wisdom. 

2. The Word of Knowledge. 



MINOR QUESTIONS. 163 

3. Fait! 

4. The gifts of healing. 

5. The working of miracles. 

6. Prophecy. 

7. Discerning of spirits. 

8. Diverse kinds of tongues. 

9. Interpretation of tongues. 

There are very few but that have, or could have, 
some of these or some other gifts. All can, by com- 
plying with proper conditions, be mediums. 

As to seeing spirits, it requires a peculiar kind of 
mediumship to enable a person to see them either 
clairvoyantly or psychologically. These are the only 
ways persons as mediums can see spirits. Spirits 
sometimes, in the presence of certain organisms, gather 
a body from elements there are in the room ; then all 
can see them without the aid of mediumship. 

A clairvoyant sees spirits by means of having his 
spiritual eyes opened. A psychological subject sees 
them by passing en rapport with some power who wills 
him or her to see them. Mediumship, for extraordi- 
nary manifestations, has always been withheld from 
the masses of mankind. David was a smart man and 
good poet, yet, when he wished to " inquire of the 
Lord," he did not use his own mediumship, but sent 
for Nathan the prophet, or Gad the seer. Thus all 
could not be mediums, even for the Hebrew God. 

Balaam could not see the angel that was plainly 
visible to the animal on which he rode. Elisha's ser- 
vant could not see the hosts of angels by which he 
was surrounded until Elisha had put his hands on his 
head. It is no more strange that all can not be clair- 
voyants, than it is that all cannot be poets or orators. 



164 THE CONTRAST. 

The Longfellows, Whittiers, Patrick Henrys, and 
Wendell Phillipses are about as scarce as the Sweden- 
borgs and A. J. Davises. 

query no. 10. 

Why is darkness required for certain forms of man- 
ifestation ? 

Answer. Before entering upon a direct reply to the 
above, permit me to ask a few questions. Why were 
the great Biblical manifestations nearly all performed 
in the dark? Even when heaven and earth were 
created, it was in the dark; " and darkness brooded 
on the face of the deep." (Gen. i. 1-2.) The 
Bible God " dwells in the midst of thick darkness." 
(1 Kings viii. 12.) When God threw Jacob in his 
wrestling-match it was in the dark. As soon as it 
began to be light, he pleaded, " let me go, for the day 
breaketh." (Gen. xxxii. 24.) The miracle of pulling 
Pharaoh's linchpins out was done in the dark. (Ex. 
xiv. 20-30.) Jesus' resurrection, the greatest of mira- 
cles, occurred in the night, so that he appeared to the 
woman before daylight. (John xx. 1.) 

All who have investigated the subject tell us that 
darkness is a negative condition of the elements. The 
reason spirits can not speak to us in the light as well 
as in the dark is, they can not speak to our physical 
ears without forming physical organs of speech ; these 
organs are organized from elements in the presence of 
a medium. Light is an agitator, traveling at the rate 
of twelve millions of miles per minute : it so agitates 
the elements that spirits can not gather and use them. 
There is not a reader of this book who can sleep as 
well in the light as in the dark. Machinery will run 



MOTOR QUESTIONS. 165 

more easily and with less friction in the dark than in 
the light. If spirits can not sufficiently control ele- 
ments to appear in a physical form as well in a 
lighted as in a partially darkened room, how can it 
be expected that they can pick knots, or chemically 
separate and join together particles of iron or steel, as 
well in a lighted room as in the dark ? I yet hope to 
see Spiritualism reduced to a more perfect science 
when these things can be done in the light. 

QUERY NO. 11. 

Is Spiritualism sometimes immoral ? 

Answer. No, never. Always directly to the con- 
trary. Yet mediumship may sometimes call into ac- 
tivity the slumbering devils of the organism. I do 
not understand that mediumship ever does more than 
to arouse the latent powers of the organism. Medium- 
ship quickens. A person with a large front brain will 
therefore be more intellectual under spirit influence 
than without it. Mediumship stimulates and calls all 
the latent qualities of the brain into activity. So a 
large top brain will be more reverential or devo- 
tional under influence than without it. A large back 
brain, with no frontal brain to balance it, will, of 
course, be stimulated under influence, and the con- 
duct of the medium will be prompted by the back 
brain. That being the case, he may be more destruc- 
tive, combative, or amative under influence than 
without. Does the reader, from this, draw inference 
that Spiritualism is bad? That is illogical. The 
shining of the sun, the falling of the rain and dew, 
certainly quickens and calls into activity the latent 
germs of life in the earth. Beans, peas, and potatoes, 



166 THE CONTRAST. 

hyacinths, roses, and dahlias, grow under these com- 
bined influences ; so does pig-weed and deadly-night- 
shade. Shall we drag the sun from the heavens, or 
declare against the summer showers, because they de- 
velop thorns, thistles, and poison ? Nay, while Spirit- 
ual influence develops, and calls into activity that 
which we call evil in the human organism, it also calls 
out the good. If a person has the good parts of his 
organism dwarfed by the theologies of the present 
and the past, he may, for a time, be worse in his overt 
acts for becoming mediumistic, yet as sure as medium- 
ship strengthens all there is of the medium, so sure it 
will eventually bring the moral and spiritual up to 
balance all other parts of the organism. 

query no. 12. 

Why do such spirits as Daniel Webster, Henry 
Clay, and Theodore Parker dwindle into such insig- 
nificance when they manifest through inferior organ- 
isms? 

Answer. Every communication, at all times, par- 
takes of the nature of the organism through which it 
comes. I have no doubt that Moses, Solomon, Paul, 
and Peter were inspired. Yet their inspiration did 
not destroy their distinctive peculiarities. No one 
can read the Song of Solomon without deciding that 
he would have all the wives and concubines he could 
get. The learning and logic of Paul, and the want 
of erudition and logic in Peter, are traced through all 
their inspirations. Inspiration, like water, assumes the 
shape of that through which it passes. A stream of 
water, coming through a round hole, will come round ; 
through a flat crevice, will come flat. So let Daniel 



MINOR QUESTIONS. 167 

Webster throw a flood of inspiration down upon a 
circle, and it will cause each one to act in part his own 
peculiar nature. One haying a massive brain, with 
the causality and comparison of Mr. Webster, will 
manifest Webster. Another, with small intellectual 
and large veneration, will go to praying, while an- 
other, with large mirthfulness, would, in a jocose 
manner, try to get off the thoughts that were thrown 
into his mind. Probably the same inspiration on dif- 
ferent persons would result in all trying to hand out 
the same thought ; but, while one would hand it out in 
syllogisms, another would use poetry, another prayer ; 
and so on, to the end of the chapter, each one preserving 
his peculiarities. Again, we doubt whether Theodore 
Parker or Daniel Webster ever heard of one in ten of 
the mediums who profess to be under their control. 
There are hundreds in the spirit world, who, like many 
here, love to assume some big name, when by that 
they can get a hearing that, under other circumstances, 
they could not get. For my part, I do not care what 
spirit communicates to me. It may be Jesus Christ, 
General Jackson, or Jack Brown : all I want is thought 
coming from the spirit world. If Webster, or some 
one in his name, makes a fool of himself, I will listen 
to him as to any other fool. If a clown hands out a 
proposition, the carrying out of which will benefit the 
world, I will take it with the same gratitude as 
though it was the voice of Him that sitteth upon the 
throne. 

My hope is that Spiritualists will soon get beyond 
seeking so many personal tests, and strive earnestly to 
come into more close communion with the world of 
spirit, the world of thought, of good, of Grod. 



168 THE CONTRAST. 

QUERY NO. 13. 

Why is so large a percentage of communications 
from Indian spirits ? 

Answer. I think I see why more communications 
of that character than any other should come to us. 

1. The Indian is born here, has always lived here, 
and now belongs here, and nowhere else. It is there- 
fore natural that in the spirit world he should linger 
about this country, seldom, if ever, leaving it. Not 
so with the Europeans : they are emigrants here, and 
even those who are born here are children or grand- 
children of those who emigrated to this country. 
They are more cosmopolitan, and would incline to 
roam over the world more than those who never knew 
or desired any other country than this. 

2. Indians have been passing to the spirit world 
from this country for many thousand years, while it 
has only been a few hundred years since the first 
white person launched from this country into the spirit 
world. The Indian element is still, therefore, the 
positive element in this country. That being the 
case, there are more of them to control, and they can 
do it better, more perfectly, than the whites. 

3. In this life, Indians are said to be better magne- 
tizers than the whites. They are more the children 
of nature, are more in harmony with nature, therefore 
have more power than others who have spent a life- 
time in destroying their natural powers, after the 
order of eating, drinking, sleeping, and living pre- 
scribed by a fashion-loving world. 

4. In this life, Caucasians are more apt to have a 
business, and follow it closely, than Indians; there- 



MINOR QUESTIONS. 169 

fore would not be so apt to leave their business and 
come to manifest their powers of controlling media, as 
would those who could do that better, and yet could 
not do some other more important work as well. 

I believe the rule in the spirit world, as in this, 
should be to put each one to the highest business he 
or she is capable of performing. Presidents of colleges 
can teach children their alphabet ; but while there are 
others who could not preside over colleges, who could 
succeed quite as well in expounding the mysteries of 
a, b, c, to the child, it would hardly pay to employ 
the heads of our universities to do that business. The 
superintendent of the Pacific Railroad could teach boys 
to play marbles, or girls to dress dolls, but is it expe- 
dient for him to leave his business to do so when 
there are so many who could do that as well as he ? 
General Grant could have gone into the army as a 
private ; but when privates were so plenty, and good 
generals so scarce, it was hardly prudent for him to 
do so. So when there is nothing to do in a circle but 
to give tests of a life beyond, Indians can, to say the 
least, demonstrate that as well as could Henry Clay 
or Daniel Webster, if they were present. So let the 
Indians come : while they give us a lesson of im- 
mortality, we may give them a lesson of progress, and 
thus we may mutually benefit each other. There is 
such a thing as preaching the gospel to the dead. 

5. There is still one more reason why many com- 
munications purport to come from Indians. I can not, 
— individually I do not choose to disguise the fact, — a 
large percentage of what they call Spiritualism is 
downright humbuggery. I do not mean by that that 
mediums in the general are guilty of using deception. 



170 THE CONTRAST. 

In very many instances it is done without the medium 
knowing it ; yet, I am sorry to say, there are those 
who knowingly and willfully deceive. Such may not 
have the ability to represent a truly great man, but 
find it easy enough to jabber broken English in the 
name of an Indian. Again, there are deceptions 
which are not willful. In my experience as a medium, 
I ever found that what purported to be an Indian 
spirit came first, then came a devotional spirit, then 
came a philosopher, who gave evidence of erudition 
entirely beyond my development or study. I now 
believe all these manifestations came from one and the 
same spirit. The influence first came to the back 
brain, which brought physical strength ; made me 
feel well and good-natured ; gave me a desire to talk, 
but no great ideas, so I jabbered : this kept me neg- 
ative until the top brain was magnetized by some un- 
seen power, then my thoughts ran in a devotional 
channel ; soon the influence passed to the frontal 
brain, then I began to philosophize. Under that in- 
fluence I never failed to have an answer to any 
question of a philosophical character. The retiring 
influence usually took me back through the same per- 
formance of praying and jabbering. May it not be 
that this is the case in hundreds of instances where 
the medium never mistrusts but that he has had a 
different spirit controlling for every different phase 
of manifestations. 

QTTEKY NO. 14. 

Why do we not more frequently get communica- 
tions from ancient spirits ? 

Answer. I must confess my doubts as to whether 



MINOR QUESTIONS. 171 

Solomon, Solon, Socrates, Plato, Pythagoras, Peter, 
or Paul ever return to communicate. There are 
epochs in man's existence, and will be throughout 
eternity- Each is a birth into a higher condition, — 
a throwing off of a grosser and putting on of a finer 
body. Those, therefore, who have been long in spirit 
life may have died to the spheres immediately con- 
nected with the earth existence, and hence not be 
able to come directly en rapport with only earthborn 
mediums. Furthermore, their work is more for those 
in spirit life than in earth life. To illustrate : Were 
I to pass to spirit life, I would leave a wife and four 
daughters, besides a host of other friends to whom I 
feel a strong attraction. This would fix my work 
here in earth life for a time. I would be inclined to 
seek every opportunity to communicate with and bless 
my friends yet on earth ; but every year would bring 
a new recruit of my friends to spirit life, thus weak- 
ening my earth attractions and strengthening those 
of spirit life. In the course of threescore and ten 
years all of my earth friends will have gone into " the 
better country;" then all my attractions will be 
there, as a consequence of my work there ; hence I 
shall but seldomly return, especially to gratify the 
caprice of curiosity -hunters. Possibly I may discover 
a medium through which I can do a great work, and 
may for many years work through that source. It is 
more probable, however, that should my name be- 
come great, and carry great authority with it, some 
other spirit would assume it for the sake of benefiting 
humanity, than that I shall control very many media 
five hundred years hence. The fact should not be 
disguised, that there are spirits who, like Paul, " be- 



172 THE CONTRAST. 

come all things to all men, if by any means they may 
save some." 

Let this account for ancient spirits not returning. 
When a spirit gives us the name of Adam, Eve, Tubal 
Cain, or Vulcan, we put them down, not as the orig- 
inal persons who had these names, but as more modern 
spirits, who were honored with these or some other 
names. 

QUERY NO. 15. 

If spirits are subject to such temptations to impose 
on the credulous as persons are in this life, and as the 
answer to the above question would indicate, what 
good can Spiritualism do ? 

Answer. In important matters there is a way to 
test spirits. The divine admonition, " try the spirits," 
in many cases should be put in practice. In many 
cases it makes no more difference who the spirit than 
who the medium is. If we go to the spirit for thought, 
for ideas, we care not what spirit imparts them, any 
more than we care what medium it is through whom 
a test comes. If we are after a test of individuality, 
and not simply of spirit existence, try them. There 
are rules by which it can be done. Your mother can 
speak words to you that no other person can. You 
should always wait for those words before you recog- 
nize her. 

As to the direct good of Spiritualism, I answer, 
whether a test was ever given or not, whether a spirit 
ever told the truth or not, Spiritualism is a demon- 
stration of an existence beyond this. A man, by 
telling a falsehood, proves his consciousness and abil- 
ity to choose between a lie and the truth, hence his 



MINOR QUESTIONS. 173 

ability to tell the truth. Thus Spiritualism demon- 
strates another world, and that that world is filled 
with the diversity of character that there is in this, 
thus indicating that the inhabitants of that country 
emigrated from this. 

QUEBY NO. 16. 

May not a new scientific discovery spoil all there is 
of Spiritualism? 

Answer. No, it can not. A new discovery may, 
in some measure, modify many theories respecting 
Spiritualism, but can not overthrow it. A new scien- 
tific discovery may modify the modes of teaching 
mathematics, but no future discovery in any science 
will change the fact that two multiplied by two will 
bring four as a result, or that two added to five will 
make seven. So whatever discoveries may be made, 
nothing can overcome the one already made, that we 
are not dependent on our five senses for all our knowl- 
edge ; that men have seen through solid walls and 
granite mountains ; that they have heard words spoken 
a thousand miles distant ; have been told by an unseen 
intelligence something they did not know before. Do 
you call it " mind reading " ? Be it so. It was not 
done with the physical senses ; then there are spirit- 
ual senses which bid defiance to all the laws govern- 
ing gross matter. If they do that, and it is proved 
by the spiritual phenomena, then this spiritual sense 
bids defiance to death, and Immortality is triumphant. 



174 THE CONTRAST. 



CHAPTER VII. 

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES AND SPIRITUALISM. 

An interesting book. — Then and now, the Analogy. — A solemn Warning. — 
Skepticism of the disciples. — u Infallible Proof. "—Better Manifestations To- 
day.— The waiting- Time. — The Promise. — What is the Comforter ? — Je- 
sus' coming. — The Holy Ghost. — The two Men. — Synopsis of Acts II. — 
The Cripple healed. — How it was done. — Peter in Court. — Admissions of 
his Adversaries. — House and Furniture shaken. — Ananias and Sapphira. — 
Shadow Cures. — The Same now.— Casein St. Louis. — Apostles imprisoned. 
— Liberated by Spirits. — Report of the Committee. — A modern Case. — A 
" Mysterious Man." — Stephen's Sermon. — Stephen a Clairvoyant. — Assas- 
sination of Stephen. — Peter as a developing Medium. — Simon does not un- 
derstand the Matter. — Philip a Medium.— Angels talk to him. — A Spirit 
carries him away. — Author carried by Spirits. — Another Case. — A new 
Star. 

One of the most interesting books in the Bible is 
the one which, in our English translations is called 
the Acts of the Apostles. A more correct rendering 
would have been the " Practice of the Apostles ." 

No person, who believes at all in apostolic example, 
can refrain from admiring that book, as it is the only 
one that gives us anything of an idea of apostolic 
practices. It is, however, not for the purpose of ex- 
hibiting the minutiae of apostolic preaching and exam- 
ple that this chapter is written, but to exhibit their 
sayings and doings on the one question of Spiritual- 
ism, and the analogy in their and our relation to the 
world. Bible believers may draw great profit from 
such a lesson. 

Before commencing a commentary on this Book of 



ACTS OF THE APOSTLES AND SPIRITUALISM. 175 

Acts, I would call attention to an apostolic warning. 
When the Jews disputed the phenomena attending 
the new religion, Paul used the words of the proph- 
ets as follows (Acts xiii. 40, 41) : " Beware, there- 
fore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in 
the prophets. Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and 
perish ; for I work a work in your days, a work which 
ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it 
unto you." 

From this we perceive that it was hard to get a 
skeptical sectarian to believe in the work [manifesta- 
tions] of the apostle's day. This skepticism does not 
seem to have been confined to the outside world ; 
even the disciples were doubtful on many of the man- 
ifestations they themselves witnessed. It was said of 
those who were Jesus' most intimate earthly compan- 
ions (Matt, xxviii. 16, 17), " Then the eleven disciples 
went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus 
had appointed them. And when they saw him, they 
worshiped him : but some doubted." 

While some doubted, others believed the manifesta- 
tions to be entirely conclusive. The writer of the 
book under consideration, in speaking of the manifes- 
tations to the apostles, says, " Until the day in which 
he was taken up, after that he, through the Holy 
Ghost, had given commandments unto the apostles 
whom he had chosen. To whom also he showed him- 
self alive, after his passion, by many infallible proofs, 
being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the 
things pertaining to the kingdom of God." (Acts i. 
2,3.) 

Here the proofs that Jesus was alive are declared to 
be infallible : and what are they? Why, nothing more 



176 THE CONTRAST. 

than that "he showed himself alive," and was seen 
forty days, and spake. All of these manifestations, 
and more, are witnessed at Moravia, N. Y., and other 
places, every day. Did those referred to in these 
verses prove that Jesus was alive, then we have all 
the evidence that could be desired to prove that our 
friends of yesterday, who to-day are in the spirit 
world, still live. If that text under examination does 
not prove that Jesus is alive, then there is no text 
that does, and Christianity can not be proved. 

One more point in this text deserves consideration. 
This Jesus told his disciples that they should wait for 
the fulfillment of a promise which they had heard 
from him. That waiting consisted in their forming a 
circle, and sitting in it until the day of Pentecost, 
which was ten days from this fortieth day, the last on 
which Jesus was seen, until seen by Paul some years 
after. This promise, to which he refers, can be none 
other than that found in John xiv. 16-26. 

There are so many good points in the " promise " 
and Jesus' comments, that I must trouble the reader 
with a lengthy extract. " And I will pray the Father, 
and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may 
abide with you for ever. Even the spirit of truth, 
whom the world can not receive, because it seeth him 
not, neither knoweth him : but ye know him ; for he 
dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not 
leave you comfortless : I will come to you. Yet a little 
while, and the world seeth me no more ; but ye see 
me : because I live, ye shall live also. At that day 
ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, 
and I in you. He that hath my commandments and 
keepeth them, he it is that loveth me : and he that 



ACTS OF THE APOSTLES AND SPIBITTJALISM. 177 

loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love 
him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith 
nnto him, — not Iscariot, — Lord, how is it that thou 
wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the 
world? Jesus answered, and said unto him, If a 
man love me, he will keep my words : and my Father 
will love him, and we will come unto him, and make 
our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth 
not my sayings : and the word which ye hear is not 
mine, but the Father's which sent me. These things 
have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. 
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom 
the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you 
all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, 
whatsoever I have said unto you." 

Here the promise is of a Comforter : but who is the 
Comforter? " Even the spirit of truth." That may 
refer simply to a spirit power, and not imply any defi- 
nite spirit. The next sentence, however, does not. 
The expression, "Whom the world can not receive, 
because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him," was 
a proof of clairvoyant power, by which they could see 
and recognize the spirit, here called the " spirit of 
truth," and the " comforter." Let it be observed, 
also, that the spirit here introduced is spoken of as 
the third person, singular number, and masculine gen- 
der. After this, Jesus more than intimates that he 
himself will be the spirit that they will see and recog- 
nize, and the world will not see. " I will come to 
you," is a positive promise that can not be misunder- 
stood. Even this is not the best part of this promise. 
He will come as the spirits do at Moravia, so that he 
can be seen. " The world seeth me no more, but ye 
12 



178 THE CONTRAST. 

see me ; because I live, ye shall live also." What 
could be plainer ? Surely nothing, unless it is anoth- 
er sentence in the same promise. " I will manifest 
myself to him" That was a puzzler to Judas. He 
could not see how a dead man could manifest himself, 
so he asks, " How is it that thou wilt manifest thy- 
self unto us, and not to the world?" How many 
there are to-day who put the same question, reversing 
the order. Why can't I see spirits as well as others ? 

This Comforter Jesus defines to be the Holy Ghost : 
Greek, Pneumatos Hagion : that is, good spirit. What 
so appropriate a comforter as a good spirit? This 
good spirit, or Holy Ghost, is to teach, and bring things 
to their remembrance. How glorious the harmony 
between that text and the manifestations of to-day ! 

But I must return to the Book of Acts, and try to 
confine this chapter to a consideration of the Spiritual- 
ism of that book. Even the first chapter, before the 
apostles enter upon their ministry at all, has the fol- 
lowing record : " And while they looked steadfastly 
toward heaven, as he went up, behold two men stood 
by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of 
Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven ? This 
same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, 
shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go 
into heaven." (Acts i. 10, 11.) 

These two beings, who stood by the eleven, as 
their visions were opened to see Jesus ascend, were 
called men. They were men, but not men in the 
flesh. Their description and garments correspond 
exactly with a majority of the descriptions of spirits 
to-day. But these men spake : u This same Jesus," 
&e. This Spiritualists would call a spirit voice. 



ACTS OF THE APOSTLES AND SPIRITUALISM. 179 

In a former volume I have thoroughly overhauled 
the second chapter of Acts, so here I shall do no 
more than make the briefest statement of the evidence 
it contains. 

1. The Holy Ghost, or good spirit, came and lit 
upon the mediums. 

2. A diversity of tongues appeared to each of the 
mediums, enabling each to address strangers in their 
own language. 

3. Peter, after meeting the objection urged by the 
opponents, that these mediums were drunk, quotes 
the prophecy of Joel to prove that manifestations 
of a spiritual character were to occur in this dispen- 
sation. 

4. He tells them that Jesus, whom he calls " a man 
approved of God " (not a God), " shed forth what 
you see and hear." 

5. He exhorts the people to repent, and put them- 
selves in a condition to receive the gift of the Holy 
Ghost, informing them that the promise of the Holy 
Ghost extended to them and their children, and all 
who are called. 

6. " And fear came upon every soul, and many 
wonders and signs were done by the apostles." (v. 
43.) These wonders and signs were just what Jesus 
had promised should attend the believer, and such, 
probably, as attend modern mediums. 

The next manifestation indicated in the practice of 
the apostles is recorded in Acts hi. 1-8. " Now Peter 
and John went up together into the temple, at the 
hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. And a certain 
man, lame from his mother's womb, was carried, whom 
they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is 



180 THE CONTRAST. 

called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered 
into the temple, who, seeing Peter and John about to 
go into the temple, asked an alms. And Peter, fas- 
tening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. 
And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive 
something of them. Then Peter said, Silver and gold 
have I none ; but such as I have give I thee : In the 
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. 
And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him 
up : and immediately his feet and ankle bones received 
strength. And he, leaping up, stood, and walked, and 
entered with them into the temple, walking, and 
leaping, and praising God." 

The facts of healing by spirit power are now so 
numerous that I need not quote circumstances parallel 
to this. A word might be said on the mode of per- 
forming this cure. 

1. Peter fastened his eyes on the cripple. 

2. He commanded the cripple to look on him. 

3. He used the name of Jesus, the one whom he 
supposed to be his controlling influence, as a charm. 
They, by looking at each other, as recorded in this 
instance, were brought into psychologic communica- 
tion. The use of the name of "the man approved of 
God by signs and wonders," rendered the patient 
negative, and consequently receptive — more so, prob- 
ably, because of his frequent recent appearances. 
When the people rushed together, astonished at the 
wonderful phenomenon, Peter explained that he was 
not the power by which the cripple was healed. He 
was only an instrument in the hands of spirit powers. 
His words are (v. 12), " Ye men of Israel, why mar- 
vel ye at this ? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as 



ACTS OF THE APOSTLES AND SPIRITUALISM. 181 

though by our own power or holiness we had made 
this man to walk ? " 

In the next chapter, Peter is brought before a tri- 
bunal to explain the phenomenon. His answer is (v. 
9, 10), " If we this day be examined of the good deed 
done to the impotent man, by what means he is made 
whole ; be it known unto you all, and to all the peo- 
ple of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Naz- 
areth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the 
dead, even by him doth this man stand here before 
you whole." 

The full admission of the people, that there was 
a supermundane power with these mediums, also 
an ability to preach, though they were unlearned 
and ignorant men, is recorded in the following (v. 
16): " What shall we do to these men? for that 
indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them, 
is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem ; 
and we can not deny it. But that it spread no 
further among the people, let us straightly threaten 
them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this 
name." 

The next wonder wrought by the mediumship of 
these men, is of the same kind as that of moving 
chairs, tables, and pianos. It is recorded in verse 31 
of the same chapter. " And when they had prayed, 
the place was shaken where they were assembled to- 
gether ; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, 
and they spake the word of God with boldness." 

This phenomena occurred at what the churches 
would call a prayer meeting. Spiritualists would call 
it a circle. No comment is needed. It was a spirit 
manifestation — nothing more. 



182 THE CONTRAST. 

In Acts v. 1-10 is the circumstance of Ananias and 
Sapphira trying to deceive the influences operating 
through the mediumship of Peter. Peter, being a 
clairvoyant, could not be deceived. A physiologic 
power, undoubtedly from the angel world, killed them 
both. Thus they are made a warning to all others to 
deal honestly, especially in dealing with risen friends. 
The extract, like many others in the Book of Acts, is 
too lengthy for a place in this volume. 

In verse 12-16 of this chapter is another instance 
of the great healing power manifest through the medi- 
umship of those apostles. The following is the record : 
44 And by the hands of the apostles were many signs 
and wonders wrought among the people ; (and they 
were all with one accord in Solomon's porch : and 
of the rest durst no man join himself to them : but 
the people magnified them : and believers were the 
more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and 
women ;) insomuch that they brought forth the sick 
into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, 
that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by 
night overshadow some of them." 

I do not think the recorder of the Acts of the Apos- 
tles would pretend that there was any virtue in Pe- 
ter's shadow passing over the sick people. The virtue 
was in their getting near enough to him to come in 
communication with his healing power. If this heal- 
ing was done by a miraculous power from God, in- 
stead of a healing power from the spirit world, which 
they are able to use in the immediate atmosphere of 
the medium, why have them pass within the shadow 
of Peter ? Why must they touch the hem of Jesus' 
garment ? 



ACTS OF THE APOSTLES AKD SPIRITUALISM. 183 

This power I have seen in modern Spiritualism 
several times. In St. Louis, Mo., when preaching 
and healing, a lady who had been a long time sick 
was brought into the meeting, for the purpose of hav- 
ing me try my healing power on her. After meeting, 
when she was introduced, she said, " You have been 
recommended to me as a healing medium, and I came 
here to be treated of a disease of long standing. I 
have been a great sufferer for several years, and sel- 
dom go out of the house. I suffered intensely when 
I came in here this morning. But there was some- 
thing in your magnetism, or your discourse, which 
has entirely relieved, and I trust cured me." The 
lady attended my meetings for five Sundays, and took 
no other medicine. The magnetism imparted in the 
delivery of my discourses effected the cure. In the 
above record we are informed that " unclean spirits 
were cast out." Were the same thing recorded in 
modern Spiritualism, it would be, " Undeveloped spir- 
its were cast out." Such manifestations were not to 
be tolerated, so the writer adds: " Then the high 
priest rose up, and all they that were with him 
(which is the sect of the Sadducees), and were filled 
with indignation. And laid their hands on the apos- 
tles, and put them in the common prison." (vs. 
17, 18.) 

When spirits that understand their business have 
such mediums as these early Christians, how useless 
are bars, gates, and handcuffs. Luke goes on to say, 
"But the angel of the Lord by night opened the 
prison doors, and brought them forth, and said, Go, 
stand and speak in the temple to the people all the 
words of this life." (vs. 19, 20.) 



184 THE CONTRAST. 

The keepers had watched this prison all night, but 
somehow the spirits got their mediums out unob- 
served. The committee appointed the next day to 
investigate the affair, said, " The prison truly found 
we shut with all safety, and the keepers standing 
without before the doors : but when we had opened, 
we found no man within." (vs. 22.) 

Probably no Christian would dispute this story. 
Angels had the power to let their mediums out of 
prison, but when similar stories are now related, it is 
entirely too great a stretch of credulity to believe it. 
" Consistency is a jewel." Will those who believe 
these men were let out of prison, believe the same 
story about mediums in the United States ? We have 
sworn testimony that Mr. Rand was let out of the 
Oswego, N. Y., jail by spirits. This gentleman had 
been incarcerated for giving tangible evidence of Spir- 
itualism. 

There is enough in the sixth chapter of Acts to 
convince the unbeliever that its hero, Stephen, was a 
medium. Verse 8 shows him to be one of the " mys- 
terious men " of his times. Its words are, " And Ste- 
phen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and 
miracles among the people." 

Verse 15 says, "And all that sat in the council, 
looking steadfastly on him, saw his face, as it had been 
the face of an angel." Nearly all Spiritualists have 
seen the countenances of mediums lighted up in the 
same way, in their inspired moments. In this con- 
dition Stephen gave the discourse which follows in 
the next chapter. In that memorable discourse, Ste- 
phen makes the following reference to Moses and 
his mediumship : " And when forty years were ex- 



ACTS OP THE APOSTLES AND SPIRITUALISM. 185 

pired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of 
Mount Sinai, an angel of the Lord, in a flame in a 
bush." 

This first Christian martyr relates this incident of 
Moses seeing and talking with an angel, surrounded 
with a spirit light, without any apparent conscious- 
ness that he was relating anything wonderful. After 
pursuing this course of argument as far as profitable, 
he shows the opposition that always has obtained 
against present manifestations, and compares them to 
their fathers, who put the mediums of their times to 
death. His language is, " Which of the prophets 
have not your fathers persecuted ? and they have slain 
them which showed before of the coming of the Just 
One ; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and 
murderers ; who have received the law by the dispo- 
sition of angels, and have not kept it." (vs. 51-53.) 

" Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost." How true ! 
Every generation has its worshipers of past genera- 
tions : these usually resist the manifestations of their 
own day. " Ye received the law by the disposition 
of angels, and have not kept it." What a flood of 
light that throws on the Old Testament. Instead 
of the God of the universe personally coming down, 
and speaking his law in the hearing of all Israel, and 
writing it with his own finger, we have Jehovah, an 
angel, the spirit of a dead man, manifesting this inter- 
est in behalf of his earth friends. 

This " Holy Ghost," that enabled Stephen to talk 
at once so eloquently and truthfully, also rendered 
him clairvoyant, so that he could see the "glory of 
God." We would call it the splendor of the other 
world, and his old friend Jesus, standing on the right 



186 THE CONTRAST. 

hand of some one lie supposed to be God. The record 
is as follows : " But he, being full of the Holy 
Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw 
the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right 
hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens 
opened, and the Son of man standing on the right 
hand of God." 

This clairvoyant manifestation and eloquent dis- 
course, referring in such glowing terms to his friend 
Jesus, of whom he says they were betrayers and mur- 
derers (vs. 52), was too much for this religious mob. 
He was assassinated on the spot. 

In Acts viii. 6, 7, we read, " And the people, with 
one accord, gave heed unto those things which Philip 
spoke, hearing t and seeing the miracles which he 
did. For unclean spirits, crying with loud voices, 
came out of many that were possessed with them; 
and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, 
were healed." 

In another place I will show that these unclean 
spirits that were cast out were none other than the 
spirits of dead men. The miracles would only be 
called wonderful manifestations, if they occurred to- 
day. The healing of palsies and cripples is to-day 
being repeated in many places in this country. 

In verses 17-21 the writer says, " Then laid they 
their hands on them, and they received the Holy 
Ghost. And when Simon saw that through laying 
on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, 
he offered them money, saying, Give me also this 
power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may re- 
ceive the Holy Ghost. But Peter said unto him, Thy 
money perish with thee, because thou hast thought 



ACTS OF THE APOSTLES AND SPIRITUALISM. 187 

that the gift of God may be purchased with money. 
Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter : for thy 
heart is not right in the sight of God." 

The first lesson here taught is, that " the Holy 
Ghost, or medium power," was imparted by having 
the apostles' hands laid on the ones to be developed. 
The Hon. John Hay, of Texas, is now a developing 
medium, who does nothing else but go from place to 
place and develop mediums, by putting his hands on 
them. He, being en rapport with the spirit world, 
brings subjects in closer connection with spirits, by 
himself acting as a conductor to bring Heaven's bless- 
ings to them. 

The second lesson taught in this chapter was, that 
Simon, though a medium, did not understand develop- 
ing mediumship. He was not a developing medium, 
and supposed the power could be purchased with 
money. The third lesson is, that money can not pur- 
chase this gift. If the person has not the organism 
for it — is not naturally a medium, though he might 
offer all the gold in California, he has " neither part 
nor lot in this matter." 

Simon was not alone in not being a developing 
medium. Philip, the great preacher and healer, 
brought to view in a former part of this chapter, 
lacked this power. So when those who were made 
believers by Philip's preaching and works, were 
developed as mediums, developing mediums had that 
work to do. Verses 14 and 15 say, " Now when the 
apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria 
had received the word of God, they sent unto them 
Peter and John, who, when they were come down, 



188 THE COKTEAST. 

prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy 
Ghost." 

The angels conversed with Philip as freely as they 
ever do now with any mediums. In verse 26 of this 
chapter we read, " And the angel of the Lord spake 
unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south, 
unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto 
Gaza, which is desert." 

The man who was riding in the chariot was con- 
verted and baptized. Then occurred a wonderful phys- 
ical manifestation, recorded in the following words : 
" And when they were come up out of the water, the 
spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, and the eunuch 
saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing. 
But Philip was found at Azotas : and passing through, 
he preached in all the cities until he came to Csesa- 
rea." 

I find hundreds of persons to-day, who have no 
trouble at all in believing this declaration, who 
would not believe me under oath, when I tell them 
that I have been carried around a room sixteen feet 
square, by spirit power alone. When I state, and 
prove by good witnesses, that Andrew Potts, of Har- 
risburg, Penn., was carried by the spirits from Me- 
chanicsburg to Harrisburg, a distance, I think, of 
twenty-two miles, inside of four minutes, I will be 
called a credulous fool, and my witnesses knavish 
liars. O, that church people could be induced to 
believe that the same God who superintended matters 
in the days of Philip, still lives. How soon would 
they learn that, " The thing that hath been, it is that 
which shall be : and that which is done is that which 



ACTS OF THE APOSTLES AND SPIRITUALISM. 189 

shall be done ; and there is no new thing under the 
sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, 
this is new ? It hath been already, of old time, which 
was before us." (Eccl. i. 9, 10.) 

This Book of Acts now introduces another charac- 
ter, who becomes so much of a star that all others are 
eclipsed. The reader needs rest and a chance for re- 
flection before he is introduced, so permit me to con- 
tinue the argument in a new chapter. 



190 THE CONTRAST. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



MORE OF THE SAME. 

Saul of Tarsus. — A good Manifestation. — The Points stated. — Ananias a 
Medium. — Did Paul see Jesus? — Another Case of healing. — Reanimation 
of Dorcas. — Cornelius's Vision. — A Test. — Peter's Entrancement. — An- 
other Test. — Angel, Spirit, Man. — Peter's preaching. — Spirits eating and 
drinking. — A second Edition of Pentecost. — Peter's Defence before his Jew- 
ish Brethren. — Agabus prophesies under Spirit Power. — Peter released by 
Spirits. — Particulars of the Case. — Peter at the Gate, his Angel. — Is this 
true? — Elymas's psychological Blindness. — Paul on the Appearance of Je- 
sus. — Paul heals a Cripple. — Narrative of Paul and Barnabas. — Who is the 
Man of Macedonia ? — Who is the Lord ? — Paul and the female Medium. — 
Who was the Spirit cast out ? — Paul and Silas let out of Jail. — Prison sha- 
ken and Bands fall off in the Dark. — Iron Rings removed. — Strange Gods. 

— Apotheosized Men. — Heathen Gods once Men. — Developing Circle at 
Ephesus. — " Handkerchiefs and Aprons." — A Minister denying his Bible. — 
The Spirits and the Sons of Sceval. — An Accident. — Paul prophesies. — An- 
other Medium prophesies. — Paul relates his spiritual Experience. — Paul in 
a Trance. — Takes sides with the Pharisees. — Communication to the Sailors. 

— A Ship saved by Spirits. — Among Barbarians. — A Snake Bite. — Success 
as a Healer. — A few Questions. — A word of Warning. 

Nearly all of the remainder of tlie Book of Acts is 
devoted to the history of one of the most wonderful 
mediums of ancient times. He was formerly called 
Saul of Tarsus, but for reasons not necessary to name 
here, his name was afterward changed to Paul. 

In chapter ix. 3-9, is the account of the wonderful 
manifestation which took this young and able lawyer 
out of the ranks of the opposition, and made a believ- 
er and medium of him. It reads as follows : " And as 
he journeyed, he came near Damascus : and suddenly 



MOEE OF THE SAME. 191 

there shined round about him a light from heaven : 
And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying 
unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ? And 
he said, Who art thou, Lord ? And the Lord said, I 
am Jesus, whom thou persecutest : it is hard for thee 
to kick against the pricks. And he, trembling and 
astonished, said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? 
And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the 
city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. 
And the men which journeyed with him stood 
speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. And 
Saul arose from the earth ; and when his eyes were 
opened, he saw no man : but they led him by the 
hand, and brought him into Damascus. And he was 
three days without sight, and neither did eat nor 
drink." 

Spiritualists claim that every point in this narra- 
tive meets its resemblance in modern Spiritualism. 
The following points are worth noting. 

1. "A light from heaven," that is, a spirit light, 
appeared. 

2. " The voice of Jesus," that is, a spirit voice, 
called out, " Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ? " 

3. Paul saw the spirit of Jesus, but the others did 
not. 

4. " And when his eyes were opened." This im- 
plies that his eyes were closed when he saw Jesus, 
so that he did not see with his natural eyes, but 
as mediums generally see spirits, with his spiritual 
vision. 

This man, while physically blind, "saw in a vision 
a man named Ananias coming and putting his hands 
on him that he might receive his sight." (vs. 12.) 



192 THE CONTRAST. 

This spiritual vision was fulfilled in the following 
manner : — 

" And Ananias went his way, and entered into the 
house ; and putting his hands on him, said, Brother 
Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in 
the way as thou earnest, hath sent me, that thou 
mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy 
Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes 
as it had been scales : and he received his sight 
forthwith, and arose, and was baptized." (vs. 17, 
18.) 

In these verses, beside the fulfillment of this mis- 
sion, we have the positive testimony that Jesus ap- 
peared to Paul. I would like to ask all who look for 
the second appearing of Jesus, which appearing this 
was? The fact is, there is no evidence that Jesus 
ever did, or ever will, appear in any other way than 
that in which our dead friends appear to-day. An- 
other evidence that Paul really saw Jesus is found in 
verse 27 : " But Barnabas took him, and brought him 
to the apostles, and declared unto them how that he 
had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken 
to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus 
in the name of Jesus. 

This was evidently the case, afterward referred to 
by Paul, when he said, " And last of all he was seen 
of me also, as of one born out of due time." (1 Cor. 
xv. 8.) 

In verses 33 and 34 of Acts ix., is the record of an- 
other wonderful case of healing by Peter. 

" And there he found a certain man named .^Eneas, 
which had kept his bed eight years, and was sick of 
the palsy ; and Peter said unto iEneas, Jesus Christ 



MORE OF THE SAME. 193 

maketh thee whole ; arise, and make thy bed. And 
he arose immediately." 

The next instance of healing recorded in the Book 
is that of Dorcas, who was supposed to have been 
dead. Peter's mediumship was sufficient to overcome 
even supposed death. The author of this book of 
actions, records the matter as follows : — 

"But Peter put them all forth, and kneeled down, 
and prayed : and turning him to the body, said, Tab- 
itha, arise. And she opened her eyes, and when she 
saw Peter she sat up. And he gave her his hand, 
and lifted her up, and when he had called the saints 
and the widows, he presented her alive." 

The tenth chapter of the Book under review opens 
with the history of Cornelius, a devout Gentile. It 
relates a manifestation which, taken in all of its parts, 
is so wonderful and so similar to modern manifesta- 
tions, that I must give it more than a passing notice. 
It says of Cornelius, " He saw in a vision, evidently 
about the ninth hour of the day, an angel of God 
coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. 
And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, 
What is it, Lord ? And he said unto him, Thy prayers 
and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. 
And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, 
whose surname is Peter." (vs. 3, 5.) 

This part of the manifestation does not contain 
much proof of Spiritualism, aside from the fact that 
Cornelius saw and talked with an angel who told him 
of Peter, and where he lived. The sequel proved this 
communication to be correct. When the other parts 
of this narrative are brought to bear, the strength of 
the evidence in it will appear. Cornelius, determined 
13 



194 THE CONTRAST. 

to know of the truth of his vision, immediately dis- 
patched men to see whether the angels had told the 
truth. But, before the men arrived, Peter, by spirit 
power, learned the particulars. 

" On the morrow, as they went on their journey, 
and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the 
house-top to pray about the sixth hour : and he be- 
came very hungry, and would have eaten : but while 
they made ready, he fell into a trance, and saw 
heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto 
him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four cor- 
ners, and let down to the earth: wherein were all 
manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild 
beasts, and creeping- things, and fowls of the air. And 
there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. 
But Peter said, Not so, Lord ; for I have never eaten 
anything that is common or unclean. And the voice 
spake unto him again the second time, What God hath 
cleansed, that call not thou common. This was done 
thrice : and the vessel was received up again into 
heaven. Now while Peter doubted in himself what 
this vision which he had seen should mean, behold, 
the men which were sent from Cornelius had made 
inquiry for Simon's house, and stood before the gate, 
and called, and asked whether Simon, which was sur- 
named Peter, were lodged there. While Peter thought 
on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three 
men seek thee. Arise, therefore, and get thee down, 
and go with them, doubting nothing : for I have sent 
them. Then Peter went down to the men which 
were sent unto him from Cornelius ; and said, Behold, 
I am he whom ye seek : what is the cause wherefore 
ye are come ? " (vs. 9-21.) 



MOEE OF THE §AME. 195 

The case now begins to look stronger, but its 
strength has not yet appeared. From verse 10 we 
learn that Peter fell into a trance : no one at all ac- 
quainted with Spiritualism will have any trouble in 
understanding that. In verses 13 and 15 spirit voices 
spoke to him. In verse 19 the declaration is positive 
that this " voice which had been talking was a spirit voice, 
as it was a spirit that was doing the talking. In verse 
20 the spirit says, " I have sent them (the men who 
were seeking Peter). But these men were sent by an 
angel. (See vs. 3.) Therefore, the angel of verse 
3 was the spirit of verse 20. In verse 21 Peter gives 
these men a test by announcing himself as being the 
man whom they were seeking. 

This matter still grows stronger as we proceed, 
Peter went with these men, as the spirit had bidden 
him. When he got to the house of Cornelius, and 
asked to what intent he had been sent for, Cornelius 
answered, "Four days ago I was fasting until this 
hour ; and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, 
and, behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing, 
and said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine 
alms are had in remembrance in the sight of 
God. Send, therefore, to Joppa, and call hither 
Simon, whose surname is Peter ; he is lodged in the 
house of one Simon a tanner by the seaside : who, 
when he cometh, shall speak unto thee." (vs. 80- 
32.) 

Here, it will be observed, that Cornelius said, " Be- 
hold, a man in bright clothing stood before me" In 
verse 20 that "man" announced himself to Peter as 
a spirit man. This man in bright clothing was " the 
angel of God," Thus we find another proof that the 



196 THE CONTRAST. 

angels of the Bible, like the demons and gods of the 
heathens, were the spirits of men, or spirit men. 

Peter commences his preaching immediately, during 
which he relates the circumstance of the death, and 
the wonderful phenomena of the appearances of Jesus 
after his death. He says, "Him God raised up the 
third day, and showed him openly ; not to all the 
people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even 
to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose 
from the dead." (vs. 40, 41.) 

God showed Jesus openly : but how, and to whom ? 
I answer, his appearance was always under the same 
conditions that spirits are seen now. "Not to all the 
people," is Peter's language. Who were those "wit- 
nesses chosen " ? If they lived to-day they would be 
called clairvoyants. But Jesus ate and drank after he 
arose from the dead. Probably he did. Spirits do 
that almost every day in the circles of Mrs. Keigwin, 
of Jeffersonville, Ind. The phenomena which at- 
tended or followed Peter's preaching were similar to 
those of the day of Pentecost. The record says, 
" While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost 
fell on all them which heard the word. And they of 
the circumcision which believed were astonished, as 
many as came with Peter, because that on the Gen- 
tiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. 
For they heard them speak with tongues, and 
magnify God." (vs. 44-46.) As this manifestation 
is so similar to that of Pentecost, comment is need- 
less. 

This matter does not terminate thus. Peter's Jew- 
ish brethren were not satisfied. They supposed these 
phenomena belonged exclusively to the circumcision, 



MORE OF THE SAME. 197 

and hence called Peter to account for preaching the 
gospel to the Gentiles. I make two extracts from 
Peter's defence. In chapter xi. 5, he says, " I was in 
the city of Joppa, praying : and in a trance I saw a 
vision : a certain vessel descend, as it had been a 
great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners ; 
and it came even to me." Here is the relation of 
both a " trance and a vision." In verses 12, 13 he 
says, " And the spirit bade me go with them, nothing 
doubting. Moreover these six brethren accompanied 
me, and we entered into the man's house: and he 
showed us how he had seen an angel in his house, 
which stood and said unto him, Send men to Joppa, 
and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter." I do 
not like to dispute the words of Peter ; but if the 
reader will take the pains to turn back to Acts x. 30, 
he will read Cornelius' story. . There is not one word 
in it about an angel. He says, " Behold, a man stood 
before me in bright clothing," &c. Thus we have it 
again, that which Cornelius calls a man, Peter calls an 
angel, and in verse 19, a spirit. The fact is, men, 
when they pass into the other world, become angels 
or spirits. 

I cannot pass from this chapter without quoting 
verses 27, 28: "And in these days came prophets 
from Jerusalem unto Antioch. And there stood up 
one of them named Agabus, and signified by the spirit 
that there should be great dearth throughout all the 
world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius 
Caesar." 

Why are none of these examples followed in the 
church to-day ? Where are the church's prophets ? 
How thoroughly do churches, in their practice, deny 



198 THE CONTRAST. 

the power of godliness. It was a spirit that enabled 
this Agabus to prophecy. 

In Acts xii. is one of the most wonderful cases of 
spirit manifestation recorded in ancient or modern 
history. Though the extract is lengthy, I see no 
place to divide it, and therefore I give it entire. 

" Peter, therefore, was kept in prison: but prayer 
was made without ceasing of the church unto God for 
him. And when Herod would have brought him 
forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two 
soldiers, bound with two chains : and the keepers be- 
fore the door kept the prison. And, behold, the angel 
of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the 
prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised 
him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains 
fell off from his hands. And the angel said unto him, 
Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And so he 
did. And he saith unto him, Cast thy garment about 
thee, and follow me. And he went out, and followed 
him ; and wist not that it was true which was done by 
the angel ; but thought he saw a vision. When they 
were past the first and the second ward, they came unto 
the iron gate that leadeth unto the city; which opened 
to them of his own accord : and they went out, and 
passed on through one street ; and forthwith the angel 
departed from him. And when Peter was come to 
himself, he said, Now I know of a surety, that the 
Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out 
of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of 
the people of the Jews. And when he had considered 
the thing, he came to the house of Mary the mother 
of John, whose surname was Mark ; where many were 
gathered together praying. And as Peter knocked at 



MORE OF THE SAME. 199 

the door of the gate, a damsel came to hearken, named 
Rhoda. And when she knew Peter's voice, she opened 
not the gate for gladness, but ran in, and told how 
Peter stood before the gate. And they said unto her, 
Thou art mad. But she constantly affirmed that it 
was even so. Then said they, It is his angel. But 
Peter continued knocking : and when they had opened 
the door, and saw him, they were astonished." 

Notice the points of similarity in this and modern 
Spiritualism, 

1. After stating that Peter was put into prison, 
and bound with chains, and put between soldiers to 
sleep, and keepers placed at the door, an angel or 
spirit went into the prison. 

2. " A light shined in the prison." This was what 
we call a " spirit light." 

3. When the angel smote Peter on the side and 
raised him up, the chains fell off. Such manifesta- 
tions occur with the Davenports and others. 

4. " The iron gate opened of its own accord." I 
think this is a mistake. Gates do not have accord. 
Where there is no mind there can be no accord. 
Peter was simply not sufficiently clairvoyant to see 
the angel who opened the gate. Modern spirit med- 
iums, who have been let out of prison, have not been 
able to see the angel who opened the door. 

5. Some power led Peter to where his brethren 
were holding a prayer-meeting or circle. 

6. When he got to the house, and knocked at the 
door, and the little girl recognized him, those who did 
not believe the child first urged that she was insane. 
They could not see how it was possible that iron chains 
could be taken off of Peter, and an iron door opened. 



200 THE CONTRAST. 

After arguing a few moments, they decided that the 
girl was not mad, but that what she saw and they 
heard rapping at the gate was " his angel." Several 
times in the course of this and a former volume I have 
shown that angels were the spirits of dead men. Jesus 
oncre said, " Take heed that ye despise not one of these 
little ones ; for I say unto you, That in heaven their 
angels do always behold the face of my Father which 
is in heaven." (Matt, xviii. 10.) 

The early church believed, as many do now, that 
each person was under the training of an angel. They 
believed also that persons grew to look like the angels 
under whose charge they were. This may account for 
their supposing that it was Peter's angel rather than 
Peter himself that stood rapping at the gate. If they 
had not believed that spirits could rap, why should 
they say, " It is his angel " ? 

This truly wonderful manifestation is in every part 
corroborated by modern Spiritualism. The Daven- 
ports, Dewitt C. Hough, Laura V. Ellis, and others, 
have similar manifestations. Why shall I believe what 
my eyes have seen, and refuse to believe that others 
have experienced the same, or witnessed similar phe- 
nomena ? Or why shall I believe this Biblical story, 
and refuse to believe the occurrences of to-day which 
so fully corroborate it ? 

In Acts xiii. 8-11, we have the following: "Then 
Saul (who also is called Paul), filled with the Holy 
Ghost, set his eyes on him, and said, O full of all sub- 
tilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou 
enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to per- 
vert the right ways of the Lord ? And now, behold, 
the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be 



MOKE OF THE SAME. 201 

blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And immedi- 
ately there fell on him a mist and a darkness, and he 
went about seeking some to lead him by the hand." 

It does seem that mediums in those days were, as 
some are now, jealous of each other. Elymas under- 
took to work against Paul. Paul was the best me- 
dium, and being filled with the Holy Ghost (another 
expression for spirit influence), "he set his eyes on 
him," and while looking him in the ej r e, pronounced 
a curse on him, rendering him blind for a season. 
This I have seen done psychologically many times. 
The blindness, however, does not continue, as it did 
not in this case. Being only psychological, it lasts only 
while the psychologic spell lasts. 

In this chapter, Paul delivers a discourse, from 
which I make a short extract : " And when they had 
fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him 
down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre. But 
God raised him from the dead : and he was seen many 
days of them which came up with him from Galilee to 
Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people." 

Jesus is the subject of whom Paul is speaking ; 
"God raised him from the dead." The body was 
dead, and God raised Jesus from it, or out of it. How 
does Paul know? He answers, he was seen, but not 
by all the people, as he evidently would have been 
had his body been raised, but by " certain ones who 
were his witnesses unto the people." When the peo- 
ple wished to know anything about the appearance of 
Jesus, they had no way to find out but by consulting 
those who, from time to time, were enabled to see him 
after his resurrection. I often wonder how it is that 
people could ever twist those texts so as to make them 



202 THE CONTRAST. 

teach a reorganization and re-living of the body rather 
than the spiritual phenomena. 

In Acts xiv. is a case of Spiritualism worth record- 
ing ; it reads as follows : " And there sat a certain 
man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple 
from his mother's womb, who never had walked : the 
same heard Paul speak: who steadfastly beholding 
him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed, 
said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. 
And he leaped and walked." , (vs. 8, 9, 10.) 

There are mediums now who could perform as great 
wonders. 

Acts xv. is about the only chapter that does not 
contain the record of some greater phenomenon than is 
practised by any of the churches, or any others, save 
spirit mediums. That gives the narrative of Paul and 
Barnabas concerning matters not elsewhere recorded. 
Verse 12 says, " Then all the multitude kept silence, 
and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring 
w T hat miracles and wonders God had wrought among 
the Gentiles by them." 

In those days the whole proof of the ministry seemed 
to lie in the ability to do works called miracles. 

In verse 28, the spirit influence, or good spirit, is 
referred to as follows : " For it seemed good to the 
Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater 
burden than these necessary things." 

A manifestation, the origin of which can not easily 
be mistaken, is recorded in Acts xvi. 6-10. "Now 
when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the re- 
gion of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost 
to preach the word in Asia, after they were come to 
Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia : but the spirit 



MOBE OF THE SAME. 203 

suffered them not. And they, passing by Mysia, came 
down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the 
night : There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed 
him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us." 

This Holy Ghost that forbade their preaching the 
word in Asia, was the same spirit that would not allow 
them to preach in Bithynia. It is probable, too, that 
this was the man of Macedonia, who said, " Come over 
and help us." This was a spirit man. Paul was in a 
spiritual condition when he saw this man, who, by the 
way, was a Macedonian. This being true, it follows 
that the spirits of Macedonians can come back and 
say, "Come over and help us." 

What plainer evidence could be required that the 
u Holy Ghost," " spirit," and "men," are all the 
same ? So, also, are the angels, as proved by the tenth 
chapter of this book, and the saints, as proved by other 
portions of the Bible. And from this they gathered 
that the Lord had called them to Macedonia to preach. 
Surely the Lord who called them this time was the 
man of Macedonia. 

Reader, permit me to whisper in j^our ear, that the 
Lords that figured so extensively throughout the Old 
and New Testaments, were always either men in the 
form, or spirits of dead men. In this instance it was the 
latter. In verses 16-18 of this chapter, is the following 
record : " And this did she many days. But Paul, being 
grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee, 
in the name of Jesus Christ, to come out of her. And 
he came out the same hour." 

Here is another instance of jealousy, and the tri- 
umph of the greater over the weaker mediumship. 
This woman, certainly under this influence, preached 



204 THE CONTRAST. 

the same gospel as that preached by Paul, and recom- 
mended Paul and Silas to her friends ; but Paul was a 
crusty old bachelor, who did not believe in having his 
preaching eclipsed by that of a woman. He had said, 
" Let your women keep silence in the churches : for it 
is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are 
commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the 
law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask 
their husbands at home : for it is a shame for women 
to speak in the church." (1 Cor. xiv. 34, 35.) 

Again : " Let your women learn in silence, with all 
subjection." (1 Tim. ii. 2.) 

Paul cast the spirit of divination out of this girl. I 
do not know why the translators put the word " divi- 
nation" there. They have put the word Python in 
the margin, — the Greek word is Pythones. Then it 
was the spirit of Pythones that was driven from this 
medium. And who was Pythones ? I will tell you. 
Python was a great snake, killed by the god Apollo. 
But it is not reasonable to suppose that the spirit of a 
snake obsessed this lady, so we must look further into 
heathenism for a solution of this question. After 
Apollo killed Python, he gave the name to an old 
woman dressed in girls' clothes, who had the power 
of telling fortunes. So any one who could tell for- 
tunes by power from the dead was afterward called a 
Pythoness. This spirit of Python either means the 
spirit of this old lady of heathen fable, or simply spirit 
power. (See Tooke's " Pantheon," pages 39-44.) 

So this case only proves to be one medium casting 
the spirit of a dead woman out of another. There is 
jealousy even among the spirits. " The Lord thy God 
is a jealous God, and his glory he will not give to an- 
other." 



MOEE OF THE SAME. 205 

The next manifestation recorded in this Book is 
found in verses 26, 27 of this chapter. "And at mid- 
night Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto 
God : and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly 
there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations 
of the prison were shaken : and immediately all the 
doors were opened, and every one's bands were 
loosed." 

1. This manifestation occurred at midnight, the 
best time during the twenty-four hours for physical 
manifestations. 

2. "The foundations of the prison were shaken." 
Is not this a manifestation of a similar kind to that of 
shaking and tipping of tables, chairs, and pianos ? 

3. " The doors were opened, and every one's bands 
were loosed." Whatever power may have opened thte 
doors, the bands were loosed by the same power now 
used to accomplish the same work. Probably the 
bands were what now would be called handcuffs. I 
have been in seances where solid iron rings, so small 
that the hand could not be forced through them, have 
been put on and taken off of the medium's arm by 
spirit power alone. True, in the case of Dewitt 
C. Hough, and others, these things were done in the 
dark. So did this occur in the dark. Verse 29 says, 
"Then he (the jailer) called for a light, and sprang 
in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and 
Silas." 

If I am asked for an explanation of why darkness was 
required for this manifestation, I can at present only 
refer to the chapter in this volume entitled " Minor 
Questions." 

In Acts xvii. 18-20, the writer refers to heathen 



206 THE CONTRAST. 

philosophers, as follows: " Then certain philosophers 
of the Epicureans, and of the Stoics, encountered him. 
And some said, What will this babbler say? other 
some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods : 
because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resur- 
rection." 

It is not to be inferred from this that Paul preached 
Jesus as a god ; but he preached Jesus and the resur- 
rection. This doctrine was well known among the 
Grecians. They nearly all believed in what they 
called the Apotheosis, that is, that some men at death 
were elevated to the position of gods. When Paul 
preaches the Anastasis, that is, the rising of Jesus, 
they understood him to teach their own doctrine of 
apotheosized men ; that Jesus at or about the time of his 
death had been exalted to be a god. Hence they said 
Paul's doctrine was that of other and strange gods. 
As they wanted to get acquainted with this Jesus, 
whom they regarded as a new god, they invited Paul 
into their own Areopagus to present the evidence of 
Jesus' apotheosis. 

Almost every work of Grecian mythology will show 
their gods to have once been men on earth. Tooke 
says, " After Ninus had conquered many nations far 
and near, and built a city, called after his name Nine- 
veh, in a public assembly of the Babylonians he ex- 
tolled his father Belus, the founder of the empire and 
city of Babylon, beyond all measure, representing him 
not only worthy of perpetual honor among all poster- 
ity, but also of an immortality among the gods above. 
He then exhibited a statue of him, curiously and neatly 
made, to which he commanded them to pay the same 
reverence that they would have given to Belus while 



MOEE OF THE SAME. 207 

alive. He also appointed it to be a common sanctuary 
to the miserable, and ordained ' that if at any time an 
offender should fly to this statue it should not be law- 
ful to force him away to punishment.' This privilege 
easily procured so great a veneration to the dead 
prince, that he was thought more than a man, and, 
therefore, was created a god, and called Jupiter, or, as 
others write, Saturn of Babylon, where a most mag- 
nificent temple was erected to him by his son." — Pan- 
theon, p. 18. 

On pages 21, 22, the same author says, " And lastly, 
to this class also we must refer those gods and god- 
desses by whose help and means, as Cicero says, men 
advanced to heaven, and obtained a place among the 
gods ; of which sort are the principal virtues, as we 
shall show in the proper place." 

Dr. Campbell says, "From the days of Titan and 
Saturn, the poetic progeny of Coelus and Terra, down 
to iEsculapius, Protius, and Minos, all their gods were 
the departed spirits of human beings, and were so re- 
garded by the most erudite of the pagans them- 
selves." 

Tooke thus describes the earth life of Apollo, page 
41: "Apollo was advanced to the highest degree of 
honor and worship by these four means, viz., by the 
invention of physic, music, poetry, and rhetoric, which 
is ascribed to him ; and, therefore, he is supposed to 
preside over the Muses. It is said that he taught the 
arts of foretelling events, and shooting with arrows ; 
when, therefore, he had benefited mankind infinitely 
by these favors, they worshiped him as a god." 

The next instance to which I shall refer is found in 
chapter xix. Paul went to Ephesus, and finding some 



208 THE CONTRAST. 

brethren there, " He said unto them, Have ye received 
the Holy Ghost since ye believed ? And they said 
unto him, We have not so much as heard whether 
there be any Holy Ghost." (vs. 2.) 

That is, he asked them concerning this spiritual 
influence. They responded they had heard nothing 
of these manifestations. The truth is, they had 
been baptized by Apollos, one of John's disciples, 
who knew nothing of this new development. Paul 
explained the matter to them, and they formed a de- 
veloping circle, which resulted in making mediums of 
them. Dr. Luke, the historian, records the matter as 
follows: " And when Paul had laid his hands upon 
them, the Holy Ghost came on them ; and they spake 
with tongues, and prophesied." 

Paul next went to Asia to preach, and give manifes- 
tations to the Jews and Greeks. Though Luke, the 
writer of this Book, was a "beloved physician," his 
jealousy did not prevent his making the following 
record: " And God wrought special miracles by the 
hands of Paul : so that from his body were brought 
unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases 
departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of 
them." (vs. 11, 12.) 

Dr. Wilbur, a medium in Chicago, performs many 
cures by sending magnetized paper to the patient. I 
myself have removed disease in the same way. The 
principle is the same as that by which Paul healed in 
the above instance. In one of my lectures, I once re- 
lated the circumstance of Dr. Wilbur, curing an ob- 
stinate case of dropsy, — a case that doctors had 
pronounced incurable. The doctor used magnetized 
paper, and no other remedy. A Methodist minis- 



MQRE OF THE SAME. 209 

ter, of small brain and large assurance, was present, 
who said, " I take it upon myself to pronounce that 
story a hoax: no case of the kind ever occurred." I 
replied, " I have no witnesses in this audience to 
prove my story. I will, however, give the names 
and post-office address of witnesses to which you can 
refer. I will further state that I know mediums who 
have healed persons by sending pocket-handkerchiefs 
to them, and I have printed documents here to show 
that another medium, whom I never saw, has done 
the same thing." 

To this the minister replied, in substance, as fol- 
lows : — 

" I have no doubt Mr. Hull could furnish witnesses. 
As he and his friends do not believe in Christianity, 
they might be induced to testify to almost anything 
that would forward their cause. So far as printed 
statements are concerned, he who would tell a lie 
could be induced to print one. So I would not be- 
lieve any printed document of the kind. Such things 
are all printed in the interest of Spiritualism, and 
must be considered ex parte evidence. The humble 
Christian must trust in Jesus and reject them." 

"And yet," I replied, "I must read my printed 
evidence. If my friend does not believe it, some 
others may. It is found in the Actions of the Apostles, 
chapter xiv., verses 11, 12." I then read the verses 
above quoted, and said, "We allow Methodist minis- 
ters to dispute the Bible : such plain historical state- 
ments, corroborated as this one is by modern history 
and my own experience, I cannot dispute." 

A case occurs in Acts xix. 13-16, which can not 
really be classed with apostolic acts, yet as it is a case 
14 



210 THE CONTRAST. 

of spirit obsession, a mediumship that seven exorcists 
were not able to overcome, I quote it : — 

" Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took 
upon them to call over them which had evil spirits 
the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you 
by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. And there were 
seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the 
priests, which did so. And the evil spirit answered 
and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know ; but who 
are ye ? And the man in whom the evil spirit was 
leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed 
against them, so that they fled out of that house naked 
and wounded." 

This case of wonderful physical strength under the 
influence of this evil or undeveloped spirit, is well 
attested. The next verse says, " And this was known 
to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus ; 
and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord 
Jesus was magnified." 

In Acts xx. 9-12 is another manifestation of heal- 
ing. The following is the narrative : — 

" And there sat in a window a certain young man 
named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep: and 
as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, 
and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up 
dead. And Paul went down, and fell on him, and 
embracing him, said, Trouble not yourselves ; for his 
life is in him. When he therefore was come up again, 
and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long 
while, even till break of day, so he departed. And 
they brought the young man alive, and were not a 
little comforted." 

In this chapter, the influence called the Holy Ghost, 



MOKE OF THE SAME. 211 

talks again to Paul. Paul says, " And now, behold, 
I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing 
the things that shall befall me there : save that the 
Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that 
bonds and afflictions abide me." (vs. 22, 23.) 

In chapter xxi. 4, the spirit again speaks: "And 
finding disciples, we tarried there seven days : who 
said to Paul through the spirit, that he should not go 
up to Jerusalem." 

In verse 11, a spirit influences a medium by the 
name of Agabus, and gives a prophecy, which the 
writer refers to as follows: "And when he was come 
unto us, he took Paul's girdle, and bound his own 
hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, 
So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that 
owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the 
hands of the Gentiles." 

This prophecy proved true in all its parts. 

In chapter xxii. Paul relates the wonderful phe- 
nomenon that converted him, a history of which was 
given in chapter ix. I have not the space for Paul's 
lengthy remarks. A brief extract from Ananias's com- 
munication to Paul is as follows : "And he said, The 
God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou should- 
est know his will, and see that Just One, and shouldest 
hear the voice of his mouth. For thou shalt be his 
witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and 
heard." 

In verses 17-21 Paul relates some things Jesus said 
to him when he was entranced: "And it came to 
pass, that, when I was come again to Jerusalem, even 
while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance ; and 
saw him saying unto me, Make haste, and get thee 



212 THE CONTBAST. 

quickly out of Jerusalem : for they will not receive 
thy testimony concerning me. And I said, Lord, they 
know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue 
them that believed on thee : and when the blood of 
thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, 
and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment 
of them that slew him." 

In chapter xxiii. 7-10, Paul declares his belief in 
spirits, and the Pharisees confess their faith that 
spirits and angels talk with him. " And when he had 
so said, there arose a dissension between the Pharisees 
and the Sadducees : and the multitude was divided. 
For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, 
neither angel, nor spirit : but the Pharisees confess both. 
And there arose a great cry : and the scribes that were 
of the Pharisees' part arose, and strove, saying, We 
find no evil in this man : but if a spirit or an angel 
hath spoken to him, let us not fight against God." 

In chapter xxvii. Paul relates his " perceptions " 
when at sea. He says to the officers of the ship, on 
which he was a prisoner, "Sirs, I perceive that this 
voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not 
only of the lading and ship, but also of our lives." 
(vs. 10.) 

Paul's warning was not heeded. The reckless cap- 
tain was disobedient to the warning, and, as a conse- 
quence, had his vessel wrecked. 

After their first disaster, the historian says, "But 
after long abstinence Paul stood forth in the midst of 
them, and said, Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto 
me, and not have loosed from Crete, and to have 
gained this harm and loss. And now I exhort you to 
be of good cheer : for there shall be no loss of any 



MORE OF THE SAME. 213 

man's life among you, but of the ship. For there 
stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, 
and whom I serve, Saying, Fear not, Paul ; thou must 
be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given 
thee all them that sail with thee. Wherefore, sirs, be 
of good cheer : for I believe God, that it shall be even 
as it was told me. Howbeit we must be cast upon a 
certain island." 

This prophecy proved true, and but for spirit ad- 
vice, through the organism of Paul, all would have 
been lost. After the worst of their trouble was over, 
Paul again uttered a prediction which proved true. 
Luke records it as follows: "And while the day was 
coming on, Paul besought them all to take meat, Say- 
ing, this is the fourteenth day that ye have tarried, 
and continued fasting, having taken nothing. Where- 
fore I pray you to take some meat : for this is for your 
health : for there shall not an hair fall from the head 
of any of you." (vs. 33, 34.) 

These opponents of Spiritualism, and Paul the 
Spiritualist, found themselves cast away among barba- 
rians ; but they were like the great majority of hea- 
thens, a kind and hospitable people. The record says, 
"And the barbarous people showed us no little 
kindness ; for they kindled a fire, and received us 
every one, because of the present rain, and because 
of the cold." (xxviii. 2.) 

Following this is the record of a wonderful manifes- 
tation. "And when Paul had gathered a bundle of 
sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper 
out of the heat, and fastened on his hand. And when 
the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his 
hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man 



214 THE CONTRAST. 

is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, 
yet vengeance suffer eth not to live. And he shook 
off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm. Howbeit 
they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen 
down dead suddenly; but after they had looked a 
great while, and saw no harm come to him, they 
changed their minds, and said that he was a god." 
(vs. 3-6.) 

Comment is needless. It was just what Jesus said 
should attend the believers. It is just what churches 
do not, and can not do. Thus they prove their infi- 
delity. 

Another case of healing is brought to view in this 
chapter. "And it came to pass, that the father of 
Publius lay sick of a fever and of a bloody flux : to 
whom Paul entered in, and prayed, and laid his hands 
on him, and healed him. So when this was done, others 
also, which had diseases in the island, came, and were 
healed. Who also honored us with many honors : and 
when we departed, they laded us with such things as 
were necessary." (vs. 8-10.) 

These cases of healing were similar to modern 
Spiritualism. How kind these heathens were ! If our 
Christian Americans would treat the heathen Chinese 
as these barbarians treated Paul, our religion would 
stand higher before the world, and the heathen world 
could respect us more. 

Now, patient reader, I have gone through the Book 
called the Acts of the Apostles. I pause to inquire of 
you, Who imitates the practice of these first Chris- 
tians? Is there an evangelical Christian on earth 
who follows their example ? Are they, or do they, 



MOEE OF THE SAME. 215 

profess to be under the influence of the Pneumatos 
Hagion ? Do they speak with other tongues ? Do 
they lay their hands on the sick, and cause them to 
recover ? Where are the cripples they have healed ? 
When did one of them follow the example of Paul 
and Peter, and go into a trance ? Do they have vis- 
ions ? Can they foretell the future, as did Paul on 
several occasions, after an angel had stood by him and 
talked with him ? In what sense do modern Christians 
follow apostolic example ? Alas, for them ! The 
kingdom of heaven has been taken from them, and 
given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof! 
They have the form of godliness, but the power, if 
they ever had it, has departed from them. 

O Orthodoxy, I counsel thee to purchase of the 
spirit world, by humble contrition and sincere re- 
pentance, "gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest 
be rich, and white raiment, that thou mayest be 
clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not 
appear, and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that 
thou mayest see." He that hath ears to hear, let him 
hear what the spirit saith unto the churches. 

Spiritualists, let us take warning, lest as bad or a 
worse thing befall us. I tremble for Spiritualism, lest 
when it becomes popular it should depart from its 
allegiance to the spirit world. Let us ever be recep- 
tive to the influence from our risen friends. 

Had I time, and my readers the patience, to go 
through the whole Bible, as I have the Book of Acts, 
I could show it all to be but the prototype of the 
Phenomenal Spiritualism of the Nineteenth Century. 



216 THE CONTEAST. 



CHAPTER IX. 

WHAT IS EVANGELICALISM? 

A general Departure from Evangelicalism. — Bible on Infant Damnation. — 
The Gods of Orthodoxy. — Eternally begotten Son, meaning of. — Eternal 
Decrees. — Prayer and the Decrees. — Predestination and Reprobation. — 
Consequences of the Doctrine. — Presbyterian Justice. — The World made of 
Nothing in six Days. — The Fall of Man. — The Devil in the Snake. —All 
for God's Glory.— Adam totally depraved. — The Result. — Very God and 
very Man. — God his own Son and Father. — A naughty Ghost. — Mary 
God's Mother. — A Pyramid of Absurdities. — Justice satisfied. — No Power 
to will. — Who are the Called ? — Elect Infants. — Doom of Non-professors. — 
Saved by Christ's Righteousness alone. —Is a second Payment demanded. — 
Catechisms on Punishment. — Sinfulness of Goodness. — Perseverance of the 
Saints.— Spiritualism, twenty of its Points of Superiority. — Conclusion. 

This volume has already grown to nearly the di- 
mensions I had calculated, and I must think of clos- 
ing ; and as I commenced with a chapter devoted to 
the question, " What is Spiritualism ? " how can I 
more appropriately close the book than with a few 
thoughts in review of the other side of the question. 

Ministers in their sermons and prayers, and authors 
in their writings nowadays so universally depart from 
then? own religious systems, that a person could not 
gather the peculiarities of Evangelicalism from what 
is heard in modern pulpits, and read in modern books. 
Even a statement of what Evangelicalism is, is often 
disputed by those who pretend to follow its teachings. 
Lest religionists should lay this book down with a 
sneer, and charge of general misrepresentation, I pro- 



WHAT IS EVANGELICALISM? 217 

pose to let Evangelicalism state itself. I shall, in tlie 
statement, quote from no other authority than the 
Orthodox Confession of Faith, and the Larger and 
Shorter Catechims, published by the Presbyterian 
Board of Publication, 265 Chestnut Street, Philadel- 
phia. This Confession of Faith and these Catechisms 
are indorsed in the main by all who call themselves 
Evangelical Christians. Some of the minor points, 
such as the doctrine of Election, Reprobation, Infant 
Damnation, and a few others, may not be indorsed by 
some of the smaller sects of Christians. While Meth- 
odists would repudiate the former of these doctrines, 
John Wesley did assert in his doctrinal tracts that in- 
fants were liable to eternal damnation. I do not see 
why they should not be. The Bible teaches, as 
clearly as it teaches anything, that infants are liable 
to suffer under the wrath of God. When Moses gave 
his command to slay, he prefaced it with a " Thus saith 
the Lord," and made it- read as follows : " Now, there- 
fore, kill every male among the little ones." (Num. 
xxxi. 17.) If God would, in a fit of anger, make such 
universal havoc among the little boys, why should he 
so change as to save them ? If he would kill little 
baby boys, why not send them to hell ? 

Ezekiel overheard God state the matter to his 
angels, as follows: — 

" And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye 
after him through the city, and smite : let not your 
eye spare, neither have ye pity : slay utterly old and 
young, both maids, and little children, and women : 
but come not near any man upon whom is the mark ; 
and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the 
ancient men which were before the house." (Ezek. 
ix. 5, 6.) 



218 THE CONTRAST. 

I must not at present say more on this subject ; it 
will come more appropriately in another place. 

It can not be expected that I can here note every 
point in Evangelicalism with which I would differ, nor 
go into a formal and very definite reply to any one 
point, for that the reader is referred to preceding por- 
tions of this volume. My chief design now is to allow 
Evangelicalism to speak for itself. 

The first chapter of the Confession of Faith is de- 
voted to an argument on the infallibility and perfec- 
tion of the Scriptures. The second chapter to a 
description of the God, or rather the Gods of Evan- 
gelicalism. He is represented as being " without pas- 
sions," and yet " hating sin," and will "by no 
means clear the guilty." 

The following are the ingredients of which this God 
is compounded : — 

In the unity of the Godhead there be three persons, 
of one substance, power, and eternity, — God the 
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. The 
Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding ; 
the Son is eternally begotten of the Father ; the Holy 
Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the 
Son. — Confession of Faith, chap. ii. sect. 3. 

This looks a little like a plurality of Gods. Here is, 

"1. God the Father; 

2. God the Son ; and, 

3. God the Holy Ghost." 

These three imaginary beings are Gods, or they are 
not. If they are Gods, then there are three Gods and 
not one. If they are not Gods, then the above titles 
are wrong. Again : if they are not Gods, when taken 
separately, what are they ? If they are men, then 



WHAT IS EVANGELICALISM? 219 

three men make one God. Do the followers of this 
creed believe that ? Of course they do not ! Then, 
are they three angels ? If so, three angels will make 
one God ; and, to find the number of Gods, all that is 
to be done is to group angels into bunches of three ! 
Of course orthodoxy will not accept this* 

Is God Infinite and Almighty ? The Confession of 
Faith and Catechisms say so. Very well, then ; there 
are in God, the Father, God the Son, and God the 
Holy Ghost, — three omnipotent Gods. Is not that 
rather more than is necessary ? Does the reader say 
there is but one Infinite God ? Then it takes three 
finites to make one infinite ; or, these three Gods are 
not " of one substance, power, and eternity." Would 
God the Father be God without the aid of the Son or 
Holy Ghost ? If so, these other two partners in the 
God-firm are only honorary and unnecessary members. 
If not, we fall back to the position that three some- 
things make one Infinite God. Turn this matter as 
you may, the absurdity of this vital point of ortho- 
doxy can not be avoided. 

Once more. What is the meaning of " eternally 
begotten"? Does it mean eternally in the process 
of being begotten? If so, he is not yet begotten. 
Or does it mean he is begotten for all the remainder of 
eternity ? If so, he is, in that respect, only equal to 
all of us, who are eternally begotten in every sense 
that Jesus was. 

The next chapter of this book is entitled, " Of 
God's Eternal Decrees." That is a contradiction of 
terms. A decree is an edict or laiv, and can not go 
forth without there being a time when it goes forth ; 
but if there is a time when it is issued, there is a time 



220 THE CONTRAST. 

before which it is issued ; but if there is a time before 
which it is issued, it can not be eternal. So there can 
be no " Eternal Decrees." 

The first sentence of this chapter is as follows: 
"God from all eternity did by the most wise and holy 
counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably or- 
dain whatsoever comes to pass." 

The above being true, things are generally and 
specifically fixed. God did not only, "from all eter- 
nity," ordain that orthodoxy should publish an almost 
senseless Confession of Faith, but " did, by the most 
wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and un- 
changeably ordain ' ' that I should expose its nonsense. 
I am no more to be blamed or praised for this expose 
than is the pen in my hand. The pen writes because 
I compel it to do so, and I publish this book because it 
was decreed from all eternity. 

How strangely inconsistent this thought seems to 
be with the idea of prayer. Why should the believers 
of this doctrine pray ? There is no reason in the 
world for it, unless it is because it was decreed that 
Christians should pray. They certainly can not ex- 
pect God to answer their prayers, as it could not be 
done without changing an eternal decree ! If God has 
decreed to do the thing Christians ask him to do, he 
will do them to save his decrees, not because Chris- 
tians ask him. If he has not thus decreed, he has 
decreed the contrary, and could not be induced to vio- 
late his decree. Some of the results of this doctrine 
of decrees will be found in sections iii., iv., and v. of 
this chapter. Here they are : u By the decree of God, 
for the manifestation of his glory, some men and 
angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and 
others foreordained to everlasting death." 



WHAT IS EVANGELICALISM? 221 

These angels and men thus predestinated and fore- 
ordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed ; 
and their number is so certain and definite that it can 
not be either increased or diminished. Those of 
mankind who are predestinated unto life, God, before 
the foundation of the "world was laid, according to his 
eternal and immutable purpose, and the secret counsel 
and good pleasure of his will, he hath chosen in Christ 
unto everlasting glory, out of his mere free grace and 
love, without any foresight of faith or good works, or 
perseverance in either of them, or any other thing in 
the creature, as conditions, or causes moving him 
thereunto ; and all to the praise of his glorious 
grace. 

What a grand promoter of morality this must be ! 
Your destiny is not made by your acts, but your acts 
and their consequences are predestinated ! " The 
number predestinated to everlasting life is so definite, 
that it can not be either increased or diminished.'' 
Reader, you have nothing to do, you could not do 
anything if you would, and if you could it would not 
have any effect, otherwise it might add to or diminish 
from your happiness here and hereafter. As God se- 
lected you to happiness or misery, without any fore- 
sight of faith or good works on your part, your salva- 
tion or damnation is all in the hands of an arbitrary 
tyrant. Your good deeds can not do you or any one 
else any good. If you are saved at all, it is through 
pure, unmerited grace. Section vii. says, " The rest 
of mankind, God was pleased, according to the un- 
searchable counsel of his own will, whereby he ex- 
tendeth or withholdeth mercy as he pleaseth, for the 
glory of his sovereign power over his creatures, to 



222 THE CONTRAST. 

pass by, and to ordain them to dishonor and wrath 
for their sin, to the praise of his glorious justice." 

This, with Presbyterians, may be " glorious jus- 
tice ; " with people who exercise more of the kind of 
sense called common, and not so much of the dogmatical 
kind, usually dubbed theological, it is the most dam- 
nable injustice. No demon incarnate could more 
thoroughly outrage every element of justice. A sov- 
ereign power that ordains " vessels of wrath," and 
then eternally damns them for being just what he 
made them, is, to say the least, fiendish. No wonder 
this book should urge upon its adherents to handle 
this doctrine of predestination "with especial pru- 
dence and care." 

Chapter iv. gives the history of the Gods, whom it 
calls God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy 
Ghost, making the world, and all there is therein, out 
of nothing in six literal days, The revelations of 
geology have caused many Christians to be careful 
about stepping on this rotten plank in their platform. 
I will only quote a single sentence. " It pleased God 
the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, for the manifesta- 
tion of the glory of his eternal power, wisdom, and 
goodness, in the beginning, to create or make of noth- 
ing the world, and all things therein, whether visible 
or invisible, in the space of six days, and all very 
good." 

I now pass to chapter vi., devoted to the subject 
of the fall of man. I quote sections i.-iv. : " Our first 
parents, being seduced by the subtilty and temptation 
of Satan, sinned in eating the forbidden fruit. This 
their sin God was pleased, according to his wise and 
holy counsel, to permit, having purposed to order it 
to his own glory." 



WHAT IS EVANGELICALISM? 228 

By this sin they fell from their original righteous- 
ness and communion with God, and so became dead 
in sin, and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts 
of soul and body. 

They being the root of all mankind, the guilt of 
this sin was imputed, and the same death in sin and 
corrupted nature conveyed to all their posterity de- 
scending from them by ordinary generation. 

From original corruption, whereby we are utterly 
indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, 
and wholly inclined to all evil, do proceed all actual 
transgressions. 

As this has been sufficiently noticed in the first 
chapter of this book, but little comment is here 
needed. 

1. We learn that the Serpent, who tempted the 
woman in the garden, was a no less important person- 
age than his Satanic majesty. 

2. This sin was permitted because it was for the 
glory of God. It does not appear from this paragraph 
how God was glorified, unless it is in his skill in send- 
ing the devil in the shape of a snake to tempt man 
and woman, and then in his ability to pronounce an 
unjust judgment on those who were compelled by his 
almighty power to act their part of the farce. 

3. Although it does not appear that they had ever 
done a righteous act, yet by this sin they fell from 
original righteousness, and became dead in sin. That 
is, totally depraved. They are "wholly defiled in all 
their faculties and parts of the soul and body." 

4. The guilt of the Adamic transgression was im- 
puted. Thus we are all actually partakers of this 
original sin, as really as though we, in person, had 
stood in Adam's place. 



224 THE CONTRAST. 

5. We are made opposite to all good. This, I pre- 
sume, is for the glory of God. Are we to blame for 
being made opposite to all good ? What a God that 
must be who is glorified by making such totally de- 
praved creatures ! Reader, is Evangelicalism, thus 
far, a system of religion that you can believe, love, 
and reverence ? I think not. 

Section vi. of this chapter, says, "Every sin, both 
original and actual, being a transgression of the right- 
eous law of God, and contrary thereunto, doth in its 
own nature bring guilt upon the sinner, whereby he is 
bound over to the wrath of God, and curse of the 
law, and so made subject to death, with all miseries, 
spiritual, temporal, and eternal." 

Is this true ? Then what becomes of a former part 
of this harmonious creed ? If man's actual sins bring 
guilt upon the sinner, binding him over to the wrath 
of God, and rendering him subject to death, with all 
miseries, spiritual, temporal, and eternal, won't these 
actions of men spoil some of God's eternal decrees ? 
Suppose one predestinated to eternal life happens to 
sin, will God save his decree by saving the man, or 
save this section of the Confession of Faith, and spoil 
his decree by damning him ? If a man is damned at 
all, will it be because of the decree, or because of his 
actions ? 

A want of space forbids an examination of every 
chapter and section of the platform of Evangelical 
Christianity. 

Section ii. of chapter viii. is so universally believed 
by Arminian as well as Calvinistic Christians, that I 
must make room for it. 

" The Son of God, the second person in the Trinity, 



WHAT IS EVANGELICALISM? 225 

being very and eternal God, of one substance, and 
equal with the Father, did, when the fullness of time 
was come, take upon him man's nature, with all the 
essential properties and common infirmities thereof, 
yet without sin : being conceived by the power of the 
Holy Ghost, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, of his 
substance. So that two whole, perfect, and distinct 
natures were inseparably joined together in one per- 
son, without conversion, composition, or confusion. 
Which person is very God and very man, yet one 
Christ, the only mediator between God and man." 
Here we have a fine list of absurdities. 

1. The Son of God is the very and eternal God. 
How can a Son be eternal ? The word Son implies a 
Father, and the term Father implies priority of exist- 
ence. But what can exist before this very and eter- 
nal God ? 

2. This very and eternal God is his own Son. 

3. This very and eternal God is his own Father. 

4. This very and eternal God is equal with his 
Father. 

5. This very and eternal God was conceived by the 
power of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin 
Mary. 

6. Wasn't that a rather naughty Ghost ? 

7. Would such a Ghost now be called holy? 

8. If the very and eternal God was conceived in 
the womb of the Virgin Mary, why is not Mary the 
mother of God? 

9. What evidence is there, beside Mary's story and 
Joseph's dream, that Jesus was begotten by a Ghost ? 

10. Would you believe a girl now who would un- 
dertake to cover her shame with such a story ? 



226 THE CONTRAST. 

11. If her lover believed the story, even though he 
may have dreamed that it was true, would you not 
put him down as a little demented ? 

12. If the Godhead and Manhood in Jesus were in- 
separably joined together in the womb of the Virgin, 
were they separated in death ? 

13. If not, then did God die ? 

14. If God died, then was the world three days 
without a God ? 

15. If God did not die, then we have only a human 
sacrifice. What a pyramid of absurdities can be 
crowded into one paragraph when dictated as an 
explanation of Evangelicalism ! How grateful am I 
to my risen friends that I have not been left to these 
delusions. 

Paragraph v., of the same chapter, says, " The Lord 
Jesus Christ, by his perfect obedience and sacrifice of 
himself, which he, through the eternal spirit, once 
offered up unto God, hath fully satisfied the justice 
of his Father, and purchased not only reconciliation, 
but an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of 
heaven, for all those whom the Father hath given 
unto him." 

Here Jesus, the very and eternal God, offers him- 
self as a sacrifice to the very and eternal God, — sacri- 
fice himself to himself. Is not that a little selfish ? 
This '" has fully satisfied the justice of his Father." 
What a strange kind of justice that must be which 
decrees man to sin, and then slays his own innocent 
Son, the only one who is absolutely without sin, for 
the guilt of the world ? God had decreed that man 
should sin ; it is but just that the sufferings should be 
confined among the Gods ; and as man only sinned 



WHAT IS EVANGELICALISM? 227 

because God decreed it, it is but just that man, through 
the suffering of God, should escape. On the ground 
that God is to blame for man's sins, an atonement by 
a God suffering is just ! In this he is only partly un- 
doing the great wrong he did in Eden, by sending a 
snake to tempt the woman, and ruin humanity. 

Chapter ix. is devoted to the subject of Free Will. 
Section hi. says, " Man, by his fall into a state of sin, 
hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual 
good accompanying salvation. So as a natural man, 
being altogether averse from that which is good, and 
dead in sin, is not able by his own strength to convert 
himself, or to prepare himself thereunto." 

This is but another statement of the Total Deprav- 
ity doctrine. " Man has wholly lost all ability of will 
to any spiritual good," and " dead in sin," &c. This 
being true, where is the use of exhortations ? What 
means Peter's language, " Repent ye, therefore, and 
be converted." (Acts iii. 19.) 

As man has no will of his own, all exhortations 
should be addressed to God ; but as " he is unchange- 
able, and works all things after the counsel of his own 
will, and has foreordained all things, whatsoever cometh 
to pass," all exhortations and intercessions to him are 
lost ! However, people will intercede if it is foreor- 
dained that they should, and my pleading is in vain. 
I have only one consolation : it was foreordained that 
I should make this plea ! 

" All those whom God hath predestinated unto life, 
and those only, he is pleased, in his appointed and 
accepted time, effectually to call." (Ch. x., sec. 1.) 

Comments on this are unnecessary. 

Section iii. says, " Elect infants, dying in infancy, 



228 THE CONTRAST. 

are regenerated and saved by Christ through the 
Spirit, who worketh when, and where, and how he 
pleaseth. So also are all other elect persons, who are 
incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry 
of the word." 

What means the expression, " elect infants " ? If it 
does not imply that there are infants who are not 
elect, there is no meaning in language. The next 
section fixes this matter beyond a peradventure. It 
is as follows : — 

" Others, not elected, although they may be called 
by the ministry of the word, and may have some com- 
mon operations of the Spirit, yet they never truly 
come to Christ, and therefore can not be saved : much 
less can men, not professing the Christian religion, be 
saved in any other way whatsoever, be they never so 
diligent to form their lives according to the light of 
nature, and the law of that religion they do profess ; 
and to assert and maintain that they may, is very per- 
nicious, and to be detested." 

Those not elected, and not having gospel privileges, 
no matter who they are, no matter how obedient they 
maybe to the word, " cannot be saved." See how 
one fatal sentence consigns over eight hundred millions 
of the present generation, who never heard of Christ, 
to the flames of an endless hell! " Much less can 
men, not professing the Christian religion, be saved 
in any other way whatsoever. To maintain that they 
are, is pernicious, and to be detested." Even admit- 
ting the truth of this beautiful (?) paragraph, why 
should Presbyterians be exhorted to detest this doc- 
trine and its advocates ? Surely it can do the elect 
no harm, and as for the non-elected, why not let them 



WHAT IS EVANGELICALISM? 229 

| 

enjoy this as well as any other delusion ? Hell is 
their doom at any rate, and no false doctrine can ren- 
der them more miserable in the hereafter. 

Chapter xi. is entitled, "Of Justification." I con- 
fess to a strong desire to reproduce the whole chap- 
ter, but can not afford the space. The first section is 
as follows : — 

" Those whom God effectually calleth, he also freely 
justifieth ; not by infusing righteousness into them, 
but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and 
accepting their persons as righteous : not for any 
thing wrought in them, but for Christ's sake alone : 
not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or 
any other evangelical obedience to them, as their 
righteousness ; but by imputing the obedience and 
satisfaction of Christ unto them, they receiving and 
resting on him and his righteousness by faith ; which 
faith they have not of themselves : it is the gift of 
God." 

Here the doctrine of Justification, pardon of sin or 
atonement, is so clearly stated, that there can be 
no misunderstanding it. Notice how perfectly any 
"righteousness of the person, or any thing wrought 
in them, or done by them," is ignored. It is for 
Christ's sake alone, " by imputing the obedience and 
satisfaction of Christ," " resting on him and his right- 
eousness." Thus, Christ does it all ; the sinner can do 
nothing. Indeed, no act of man can affect his condi- 
tion in the other world. Yet these very people are 
afraid of Spiritualism, lest it should take away the 
stimulants to righteousness. 

The next sentence assures us that " faith, thus re- 
ceiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness, is 



230 THE CONTEAST. 

the alone instrument of justification ; " and this faith 
we are told, in the preceding section, is " the gift of 
God." 

Paul says, " How can they believe on him of whom 
they have not heard, and how can they hear without 
a preacher." Where are the heathen who never 
heard of Christ? This theory " leaves them no ref- 
uge but hell." 

The first half of the next section says, " Christ, by 
his obedience and death, did fully discharge the debt 
of all those that are thus justified, and did make a 
proper, real, and full satisfaction to his Father's justice 
in their behalf." 

Now, I submit, that if " Christ has fully discharged 
the debt," that is all that could be justly asked. If 
a "proper, real, and full satisfaction " has been made 
in behalf of the elect, that is enough. Why should 
the penalty of sin, or any of it, be visited on those for 
whom the debt has been fully discharged, and "full 
satisfaction rendered to the Father." Does the reader 
realize what this penalty is that has been fully taken 
off from the elect, unless God is an unjust tyrant, 
dunning poor sinners for, and compelling them to pay 
a second time, a debt that has been fully satisfied ? 
This Confession of Faith has said it is : " Death with 
all miseries, spiritual, temporal, and eternal." 

The Larger Catechism says, — 

2. " What are the punishments of sin in this world ? " 

Answer. The punishments of sin in this world are 
either inward, — as blindness of mind, a reprobate 
sense, strong delusions, hardness of heart, horror of 
conscience, and vile affections ; or outward, as the 
curse of God upon the creatures for our sake, and all 



WHAT IS EVANGELICALISM? 231 

other evils that befall us in our bodies, names, estates, 
relations, and employments, together with death it- 
self." (Question 28.) 

In answer to Question 19, the Shorter Catechism 
says, " All mankind, by their fall, lost communion 
with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made 
liable to the miseries in this life, to death itself, and 
the pains of hell forever." Thus we find, by all three 
of these standard works, that death — literal death — 
is the penalty of sin. Now, if " Christ has rendered 
full satisfaction to his Father's justice in behalf of the 
elect," why are they compelled to pay that part of 
the penalty? As no one escapes death, I must decide 
that there are no elect, or Evangelicalism is wrong. 
In either instance, would it not be well for Christians 
to re-examine the ground of their religion ? 

Section v. of the chapter under examination in- 
forms us of the impossibility of falling from grace. 
I wonder if the fact of so many leaving the church 
and coming to Spiritualism does not render some of 
the " elect " a little shaky on the point. 

I must now pass several chapters without notice. 

Chapter xvi. is a dissertation on good works. Sec- 
tion xii. says, " Works done by unregenerate men, 
although for the matter of them they may be things 
which God commands, and of good use both to them- 
selves and others, yet because they proceed from a 
heart not purified by faith, nor are done in a right 
manner according to the word, nor to a right end, the 
glory of God, they are therefore sinful, and can not 
please God, or make man meet to receive grace from 
God." By unregenerate men, the framers of this 
paragraph mean waft-Christians. What can unregen- 



232 THE CONTRAST. 

erate men, who should waste their time in reading 
this production conclude, but that the best they can do 
is to do the worst thing they can ? Good works, which 
God commands, when done by them, " are sinful, and 
can not please God." Repentance is a good work; 
but, according to this, is sinful when practiced by the 
non-elect. Reader, according to this creed, it would 
be a sin for you, if you are unconverted, to haul a 
load of wood to keep your poor sick neighbor from 
freezing to death. Don't sin by taking a barrel of 
flour to a widow, or a pair of shoes to an orphan. 
This is Evangelicalism. How much will you have ? 

I now pass to chapter xvii. : " The Perseverance of 
the Saints." Sections i. and ii. certainly contain con- 
solation for Christians. Here they are : " They whom 
God hath accepted in his beloved, effectually called 
and sanctified by his Spirit, can neither totally nor 
finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall cer- 
tainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally 
saved." 

This perseverance of the saints " depends, not upon 
their own free will, but upon the immutability of the 
decree of election, flowing from the free and un- 
changeable love of God the Father ; upon the efficacy 
of the merits and intercession of Jesus Christ ; the 
abiding of the Spirit and of the seed, of God within 
them, and the nature of the covenant of grace : from 
all which ariseth also the certainty and infallibility 
thereof." 

What more could be required then ? Salvation 
" depends, not upon their own free will, but upon the 
immutability of the decree of election." What can 
be so effectually calculated to kill all effort on the 



WHAT IS EVANGELICALISM? 233 

part of the people to practice the right ? Enough of 
this. Spiritualism has helped many Christians out of 
such dogmas. 

Reader, I have gone through this much of the Con- 
fession of Faith, not to exhibit all of its errors, but 
for the purpose of handing you a sample of what you 
are invited to take in the place of Spiritualism. An 
illustration of the teachings of Methodism, Campbell- 
ism, and other of the more heterodox denominations, 
will exhibit quite as many absurdities as are to be 
found in the creed just examined. 

In conclusion, permit me to say Spiritualism is bet- 
ter than any of the Christian systems, on, at least, the 
following points, and for the following reasons : — 

1. Because it recognizes the soul as being the only 
absolute authority. It fully. believes every man to 
have an inspiration, which, if followed, will guide him 
as unerringly as the instinct of a bird will guide it on 
its wing. 

2. Because it teaches that all spirit is the same, 
whether in God or man, and that those whom we call 
the lowest can, by virtue of their relationship with the 
Deity, by proper effort, develop and bring into activity 
the God within. 

3. Because, in denying the possibility of the pardon 
of sin, in any sense of the word, that would permit 
the culprit to escape the penalty, it teaches the world 
to refrain from sin as the only means of happiness here 
and hereafter. 

4. Because the evidences of its phenomena are more 
in harmony with reason, and better certified, than 
those of the Bible. Its manifestations being established 
by living witnesses, its evidences are better than those 



234 - THE CONTRAST. 

of the Bible. " A living dog is better than a dead 
lion." 

5. Because it is the only religion that teaches the 
absolute equality of men. Even the supposed Author 
of Christianity calls the Gentiles "dogs," and urges 
that it is not meet to take the children's bread and 
give it to the dogs." When he commissioned his dis- 
ciples to preach, his first commission was, " Into any 
city of the Gentiles enter ye not." The second would 
not allow them to turn to the Gentiles until after the 
Jews had rejected the gospel. " Begin at Jerusalem," 
was the command. 

6. Because it teaches that perfection never having 
been obtained by any one in this life, there is room to 
live a better life than ever has been, and urges upon 
each to take as an example the good of all historic 
characters, and in themselves develop some good 
never yet illustrated in humanity. 

7. Because it is the only religion that teaches that 
the standard by which every one is to be judged, can 
not be swerved by any extraneous power, such as 
prayers, baptisms, sacrifices, or the blood of atone- 
ment. 

8. Because, instead of looking to a future day of 
judgment, when an arbitrary tyrant shall reward or 
punish men for the belief or disbelief of a dogma, it 
teaches that every one shall, here and hereafter, re- 
ceive the consequence of every act. 

9. Because it teaches that every man must be true 
to his condition. It would, therefore, treat the mur- 
derer or kleptomaniac as diseased, and find a refuge 
and proper medical treatment for him, thus curing 
him of sin, and elevating him beyond the possibility 
of crime. 



WHAT IS EVANGELIC AHSM ? 235 

10. Because it makes the practice of the virtues 
the only path to happiness here and hereafter. It 
allows no supererogative works, such as prayers, con- 
fessions, and sacraments, to step between man and his 
duty. 

11. Because it places all men on the same basis, 
teaching 1 that all are members of the same family ; and 
believing that the ultimate destiny of all is to happi- 
ness, it, instead of saying, " Let him that is filthy be 
filthy still," works for the reformation of those whom 
others recognize as incorrigible. 

12. Because it teaches the principle of the fellow- 
ship of the entire human family, while Christianity 
only teaches the fellowship of a certain class ; it urges 
that some " are of their father the devil," that others, 
on certain conditions, may become the children of our 
Father in heaven. 

13. Because it is the only religion that teaches man 
that the only method of elevating himself is by the 
elevation of others ; thus giving him a stimulus to 
work for others in order to help himself. 

14. Because its revelations and documents are al- 
ways written in the language of those for whom they 
are written, thus saving its adherents the valuable 
time and money thrown away by others in the study 
of languages that no amount of erudition can enable 
one to perfectly understand, thus giving its adherents 
more time for the pursuit of ethical and scientific 
studies. 

15. Because it teaches, as did ancient heathenism, 
as Paul was compelled to acknowledge, that man is 
the offspring of God, a part and parcel of Nature, and 
thus invites its adherents to a study of Nature, in 



236 THE CONTRAST. 

order that they may understand themselves. Thus 
time thrown away by the representatives of other re- 
ligions, in the study of a book which teaches that God 
and Nature are at war with each other, is, by the 
Spiritualists, spent in looking through science to Na- 
ture's God. 

16. Because it advocates the principle of self-abne- 
gation here, in order to happiness here and hereafter ; 
thus enabling its adherents to endure the scoffs and 
sneers of an infidel Christianity. 

17. Because it lifts its adherents out of a cold 
church materialism, and gives them a knowledge of 
endless life. 

18. Because it calls the mind away from the weak, 
revengeful, passionate, illiterate human spirit the 
Bible calls God, and bids its adherents behold God 
in all Nature. 

19. Because it does not compel its adherents, by 
forms, ceremonies, and memorials, to remember that 
Christ was once on earth, but bids them now find 
him in the persons of the afflicted, sick, imprisoned, 
and impoverished, and administer to his wants. 

20. Because it to-day carries with it living tests 
that no other religion has ; that the ministers of other 
religions dare not even see, lest they should be con- 
verted and healed. 

Reader, I am now done. You have in this volume 
a chance to compare Evangelicalism and Spiritualism. 
If I have offered a thought that will benefit you, I am 
made happier. Heaven help us to be humble and 
teachable, 



J"TJ3T IS3XJE3D. 



A BIOGRAPHY 



OF 



MRS. J. H. CONANT, 

The World's Medium of the Nineteenth 
Century. 

A HISTORY OF HER MEDIUMSHIP 

From Childhood to the Present Time; 

BEING A NARRATIVE OF THE 

Personal Experiences, Sharp Trials, and Liberalizing 

Victories achieved in the cause of Human 

Reason and Spiritual Knowledge. 



Let the heart-stricken read it, and be comforted ; 
Let the earth- weary peruse it, and be glad ; 
Let the world's workers explore it, and be encouraged ; 
Let the doubter scan its incontrovertible testimony, and be confounded ; 
Let the true man and woman, wherever abiding, recognize in it the 
life-line of a kindred soul. 



WILLIAM WHITE AND COMPANY, 

PUBLISHERS, 
NO. 14 HANOVER STREET, 

BOSTON, MASS. 



FLASHES OF LIGHT 

FROM 

THE SPIRIT-LAND, 

THROUGH THE MEDIUMSHIP OF 

MRS. J. H. CONANT. 

Compiled and Arranged by 

ALLEN PUTNAM, 

Author of " Spirit- Works ; " " Natty, a Spirit ; " " Mesmerism, Spiritualism, 
Witchcraft, and Miracle ; " Etc., Etc. 



This comprehensive volume of more than four hundred pages 
will present to the reader a wide range of useful information 
upon subjects of the utmost importance. 

THE DISEMBODIED MINDS 

of many distinguished lights of the past 

HERE SPEAK 

to the embodied intelligences of to-day, proclaiming their views 
as derived from or modified by the Freedom from Artificial 
Constraint, and the ADDED LIGHT OF THE SPIRIT- 
WORLD, concerning 

THE ORIGIN OF MAN, 

the duty devolving upon each individual, and the 
DESTINY OF THE RACE. 

As an Encyclopaedia of Spiritual Information, this work is 
without a superior. 

Price $1.50. Postage 22 cents. 
WILLIAM WHITE AND COMPANY, Publishers, 

NO. 14 HANOVER STREET, BOSTON, MASS. 



M OF LIAHT: 



A.JS JESX1I»OT^Ej^T OIF" THE 

SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 

OF THE HOErEE\rH CENTURY. 

PUBLISHED WEEKLY 
AT NO. 14 HANOVER STREET, . . . BOSTON, MASS. 

WILLIAM WHITE & CO Proprietors. 

WILLIAM WHITE. LUTHER COLBY. ISAAC B. RICH. 



THE BANNER OF LIGHT is a first-class eight-page Family Newspaper, 
containing forty columns of interesting and instructive reading, classed 
as follows : 
LITERARY DEPARTMENT. — Original Novelettes of reformatory 

tendencies, and occasionally translations from French and German authors. 
REPORTS OF SPIRITUAL LECTURES— By able Trance and 

Normal Speakers. 

ORIGINAL ESSAYS— Upon Spiritual, Philosophical, and Scientific 
Subjects. 

EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT. — Subjects of General Interest, the 
Spiritual Philosophy, Current Events, Entertaining Miscellany, Notices of 
New Publications, &c. 

MESSAGE DEPARTMENT. — A page of Spirit-Messages from the 
departed to their friends in earth-life, given through the mediumship of 
Mrs. J. H. Conant, proving direct spirit-intercourse between the Mundane 
and Super-Mundane Worlds. 
A\l which features render this journal a popular Family Paper, and at the 

same time the Harbinger of a Glorious Scientific Religion. 



TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION IN ADVANCE! 

Per Year, $3.00 Six Months, $1.50. 

In remitting by mail, a Post Office Order or Draft on Boston or New York payable 
t'^ the order of William White & Co. is preferable to Bank Notes, since, should 
the Order or Draft be lost or stolen, it can be renewed without loss to the sender. 

Subscriptions discontinued at the expiration of the time paid for. 

Subscribers in Canada will add to the terms of subscription 20 cents per year, for 
pre-payment of American postage. 

(Hair* Specimen Copies sent Free. 

Advertisements inserted at twenty cents per line for the first, and fifteen cents 
perline for each subsequent insertion. 

(B^^ All communications intended for publication, or in any way connected with 
the Editorial Department, should be addressed to the Editor. Letters to the Edi- 
tor, not intended for publication, should be marked " private " on the envelope. 



WILLIAM WHITE & CO., 

PUBLISHERS AND BOOKSELLERS. 

Wo. 14 Hanover Street, Boston, Mass. 

This Establishment keeps for sale all 

Spiritual, Progressive and Reform Publications, 

For Prices, &c , see Catalogues, and advertisements in the Banner of Light. 



FLASHES OF LIGHT 

FROM 

THE SPIRIT-LAND, 

THROUGH THE MEDIUMSHIP OF 

MRS. J. H. CONANT. 

Compiled and Arranged by 

ALLEN PUTNAM, 

Author of " Spirit-Works ; " " Natty, a Spirit ; " " Mesmerism, Spiritualism, 
Witchcraft, and Miracle ; » Etc., Etc. 



This comprehensive volume of more than four hundred pages 
will present to the reader a wide range of useful information 
upon subjects of the utmost importance. 

THE DISEMBODIED MINDS 

of many distinguished lights of the past 

HERE SPEAK 

to the embodied intelligences of to-day, proclaiming their views 
as derived from or modified by the Freedom from Artificial 
Constraint, and the ADDED LIGHT OF THE SPIRIT- 
WORLD, concerning 

THE ORIGIN OF MAN, 

the duty devolving upon each individual, and the 
DESTINY OF THE RACE. 

As an Encyclopaedia of Spiritual Information, this work is 
without a superior. 

Price $1.50. Postage 22 cents. 
WILLIAM WHITE AND COMPANY, Publishers, 

NO. 14 HANOVER STREET, BOSTON, MASS. 



BANNER OF UBHT: 

A.1S EXPONENT OIF 1 THE 

SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 

OF THE WOErEE\TH CENTURY. 

PUBLISHED WEEKLY 
AT NO. 14 HANOVER STREET, . . . BOSTON, MASS. 

WILLIAM WHITE & CO Proprietors. 

WILLIAM WHITE. LUTHER COLBY. ISAAC B. RICH. 



THE BANNER OF LIGHT is a first-class eight-page Family Newspaper, 
containing forty columns of interesting and instructive reading, classed 
as follows : 
LITERARY DEPARTMENT. — Original Novelettes of reformatory 

tendencies, and occasionally translations from French and German authors. 
REPORTS OF SPIRITUAL LECTURES —By able Trance and 

Normal Speakers. 

ORIGINAL ESSAYS— Upon Spiritual, Philosophical, and Scientific 
Subjects. 

EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT. — Subjects of General Interest, the 
Spiritual Philosophy, Current Events, Entertaining Miscellany, Notices of 
New Publications, &c. 

MESSAGE DEPARTMENT. — A page of Spirit-Messages from the 
departed to their friends in earth-life, given through the mediumship of 
Mrs. J. H. Conant, proving direct spirit-intercourse between the Mundane 
and Super-Mundane Worlds. 
AJ1 which features render this journal a popular Family Paper, and at the 

same time the Harbinger of a Glorious Scientific Religion. 



TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION IN ADVANCE: 

Per Year, $3.00 Six Months, $1.50. 

In remitting by mail, a Post Office Order or Draft on Boston or New York payable 
t^» the order of William White & Co. is preferable to Bank Notes, since, should 
the Order or Draft be lost or stolen, it can be renewed without loss to the sender. 

Subscriptions discontinued at the expiration of the time paid for. 

Subscribers in Canada will add to the terms of subscription 20 cents per year, for 
pre-payment of American postage. 

(BaP* Specimen Copies sen t Free. 

Advertisements inserted at twenty cents per line for the first, and fifteen cents 
perline for each subsequent insertion. 

(B^^ All communications intended for publication, or in any way connected with 
the Editorial Department, should be addressed to the Editor"! Letters to the Edi- 
tor, not intended for publication, should be marked " private " on the envelope. 



WILLIAM WHITE & CO., 

PUBLISHERS AND BOOKSELLERS, 

No. 14 Hanover Street, Boston, Mass. 

This Establishment keeps for sale all 

Spiritual, Progressive and Reform Publications, 

For Prices, &c , see Catalogues, and advertisements in the Banner of Light. 



